Silver rebounds from one-week lows ahead of Fed's minutes

Silver futures rose nearly one percent in American trade away from February 14 lows, even as the dollar index rebounded from December 17, 2014 lows, following earlier data from the US, and ahead of the Federal Reserve's last meeting minutes. 

As of 05:29 GMT, silver futures due on May 15 rose 0.80% to $16.645 an ounce from the opening of $16.513, while the dollar index rose 0.23% to 89.92 from the opening of 89.72. 

Earlier US data showed positive flash readings for both manufacturing and services PMIs, while existing home sales fell unexpectedly in January. 

Investors now await the Federal Reserve's minutes of the January 30-31 meeting, at which policymakers votes to hold interest rates unchanged between 1.25% and 1.5%. 

At the last meeting under Janet Yellen, policymakers asserted the path of policy tightening and three rate hikes this year, while expanding the plans of normalizing the balance sheet. 

Markets in particular look forward to the Fed's March 20-21 meeting, the first under new Chair Jerome Powell, at which policymakers will release their three-year forecasts for inflation, unemployment, growth, and interest rates.