PRECIOUS-Gold rises as investors await US Fed minutes

By Pablo Sinha

Feb 18 (Reuters) - Gold prices rose more than 1% from a one-week low the previous session as investors awaited the minutes of January's U.S. Federal Reserve meeting due later on Wednesday.

Spot gold XAU= rose 0.8% to $4,915.90 per ounce by 0914 GMT, after gaining more than 1% earlier. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for April delivery gained 0.6% to $4,936.30.

Prices falling below $4,900 "has created some opportunistic buying in the market," said Bernard Dahdah, an analyst at Natixis, adding that investors are positioning themselves ahead of the release of January's Fed minutes.

Bullion prices dropped to $4,841.74 per ounce on Tuesday, pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar and as easing tensions between the United States and Iran dampened safe-haven demand, while many Asian markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year.

Investors are also awaiting U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures report for December, due on Friday, to determine the Fed's monetary policy this year.

Non-yielding bullion tends to do well in low-interest-rate environments.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee on Tuesday signalled "several more" rate cuts this year if inflation resumes a decline to the 2% target, while Fed Governor Michael Barr said that another rate cut could come somewhere well down the road.

Iran and the U.S. reached an understanding on Tuesday on "guiding principles" for nuclear talks, but that does not mean a deal is imminent, the Iranian Foreign Minister said.

"Unless there are geopolitical reasons, we don't expect to see the same rally that we saw last year. So we see prices averaging around $4,850 this year," Dahdah said.

Spot silver XAG= rose 3.3% to $75.98 per ounce after dropping more than 5% on Tuesday.

Spot platinum XPT= gained 1.8% to $2,043.38 per ounce, while palladium XPD= added 2.1% to $1,718.03.