(Bloomberg) -- Gold clinched a fresh record — pushing closer to $4,000 an ounce — as the US government shutdown added another layer of uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path before a gathering of policymakers later this month.

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Bullion rose as much as 0.4% as markets opened on Tuesday to $3,976.25 an ounce, after gaining 1.9% on Monday. The suspension in federal operations — which began last week — has deprived investors of key government data needed to assess the health of the US economy, while the US central bank struggles to assess changing conditions. Traders are still pricing in a quarter-point rate cut this month, which would benefit gold further as it doesn’t pay interest.

Gold has soared more than 50% this year in a rally that’s seen successive all-time highs, with prices now on track for the biggest annual gain since 1979. The precious metal has been supported by central-bank buying and increasing holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded funds, as the Fed resumed interest-rate cuts.

Spot gold was little changed at $3,961.33 an ounce at 6:41 a.m. in Singapore. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was down 0.1%. Silver was steady, after gaining as much as 1.6% in the previous session to hit 48.7675 an ounce — about $1 shy of an an all-time high in Bloomberg data going back to 1993. Platinum and palladium rose.

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