Gold Down, Investors Begin Preparing for Next Fed Policy Decision

Gold was down, on Thursday morning in Asia, with higher U.S. Treasury yields blocking gains as investors remain cautious in preparation for the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next policy decision.

Gold futures edged down 0.18% to $1,839.85 by 10:49 PM ET (3:49 AM GMT), remaining near its highest level since Nov. 22, 2021. The safe-haven yellow metal recorded its best session in three months on Wednesday, boosted by a weakening dollar and intensifying U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose on Thursday, gently pressuring gold.

The Fed is widely expected to tighten monetary policy at a much faster pace than expected a month ago to curb continually high inflation. This inflation is now the biggest threat to the U.S. economy in 2022, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Investors now await the Fed’s next policy decision, due to be handed down on Jan. 26. Policy decisions from central banks in Indonesia, Malaysia, Norway, Turkey, and Ukraine are due later in the day.

In other commodities, crude oil prices were on an upward trend and contributed to inflation concerns.

In the U.K., Wednesday’s inflation data showed that the consumer price index grew 5.4% year-on-year and 0.5% month-on-month in December. The producer price index input grew 13.5% year-on-year but contracted 0.2% month-on-month.

The higher-than-expected figures could pressure the Bank of England to hike interest rates.

Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China looks set to embark on a divergent path from its U.S. counterpart. China’s central bank cut the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) from 3.8% to 3.7%, and the five-year LPR from 4.65% to 4.6%, on Thursday.

In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1% and palladium fell 0.4%, while platinum inched up 0.1%.