Gold futures settled higher on Wednesday, then extended those gains into the electronic trading after the Federal Reserve announced a hike in its benchmark fed funds rate of a quarter of one percentage point to a 4.75% to 5% range. April gold GCJ23 was at $1,966.40 an ounce in electronic trading shortly after the announcement. That follows a settlement at $1,949.60 an ounce, up $8.50, or 0.4%, for Wednesday’s session.

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