PRECIOUS-Gold rises ahead of US Fed minutes

By Pablo Sinha

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

Spot gold XAU= was up 1% at $4,927.19 per ounce by 1240 GMT. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for April delivery gained 0.9% to $4,947.70.

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, as a stronger U.S. dollar and easing tensions between the United States and Iran dampened demand for the safe-haven, while many Asian markets were closed for the Lunar New Year.

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

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee on Tuesday signaled "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.

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

On the geopolitical front, Iran and the U.S. reached an understanding on Tuesday on "guiding principles" for nuclear talks. However, that does not mean a deal is imminent, Iran's 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 2.9% to $75.59 per ounce after declining more than 5% on Tuesday.

Spot platinum XPT= gained 1.9% to $2,045.13 per ounce and palladium XPD= added 1.7% to $1,711.25.