Gold Down, Investors Await Further Inflation Data

Gold was down on Tuesday morning in Asia, hovering just below the $1,900 mark as investors await further clues later in the week to gauge inflationary pressure.

Gold futures inched down 0.03% to $1,898.30 by 12:12 PM ET (4:12 AM GMT). The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, edged up but remained below the three-week high of 90.627 hit during the previous week. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield remained near a more than one-week low.

Investors await the U.S. consumer price index report, due out on Friday, that could indicate the Federal Reserve’s next policy move. The Fed will meet to hand down its policy decision in the following week.

The European Central Bank will hand down its own policy decision ahead of the Fed on Thursday, with both decisions to be scrutinized for any hints of asset tapering.

On the data front, Japan’s GDP contracted 1% quarter-on-quarter for the first quarter of 2021, according to data released earlier in the day. The contraction was smaller than the 1.2% contraction in forecasts prepared by Investing.com but was lower than the previous quarter’s 2.8% growth.

The GDP also contracted 3.9% year-on-year.

Elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region, Australia’s National Australia Bank (NAB) Business Confidence Index climbed to 20 in May, higher than the previous month’s 17 reading. Meanwhile, the NAB business survey also rose to 37, exceeding April’s 32 figure.

In other precious metals, silver, palladium and platinum inched up 0.1% while platinum edged 0.1%.