Gold is falling nearly 1% on Thursday morning, failing to find a fresh catalyst in remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh after the US central bank opted to hold interest rates unchanged on Wednesday. Markets are now pricing in a further monetary tightening in December.

The non-yielding precious metal is down 0.94% to $4,029.60 per ounce, having managed only a modest acceleration over the previous three sessions. Gold is on course to close October in negative territory for the second consecutive month, having already shed around 3% during the period.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted in favour of keeping rates on hold, with only two dissenting votes calling for a change. In his post-decision remarks, the Fed chair announced that the central bank will reduce the frequency of its monetary policy decisions from eight to six meetings per year — a move analysts say is likely to introduce additional uncertainty into markets.

Investor attention is now turning to the latest reading of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, due for release on Thursday. In September, the index is expected to have accelerated from 3.4% to 3.6% year-on-year, reinforcing the narrative of a more restrictive monetary policy stance in the face of persistent inflation.

With gold oscillating near the $4,000 threshold for much of this week, investors “are in a wait-and-see posture”, Ole Sloth Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, told Bloomberg. “After recovering from an important technical support level around $3,970, the tug-of-war between short-term momentum-driven sellers and long-term accumulators continues”, he added.