Gold Down, Just Below Four-Month High as Fed Hints at Tapering

Gold was down on Thursday morning in Asia but remained just below the four-month high hit during the previous session, as the U.S. Federal Reserve hinted that it has begun debating whether to taper its current dovish monetary policy.

Gold futures were up 0.28% to $1,876.20 by 12:44 AM ET (4:44 AM GMT) after hitting its highest since Jan. 8 at $1,889.75 on Wednesday.

The Fed released the minutes from its latest meeting on Wednesday that said, “a number of participants suggested that if the economy continued to make rapid progress toward the committee’s goals, it might be appropriate at some point in upcoming meetings to begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases.”

The dollar, which usually moves inversely to the yellow metal, inched down on Thursday while benchmark U.S. Treasury yields rose to a one-week high after the minutes’ release.

Across the Atlantic, the U.K.’s consumer price index, released on Wednesday, grew a better-than-expected 1.5% year-on-year in April.

Although prices are likely to keep climbing as economies emerge and recover from COVID-19 lockdowns, the Bank of England hopes will prove temporary. According to European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel, any surge in inflation is temporary, and consumer prices should fall sharply in 2022.

In Asia, the People’s Bank of China kept its loan prime rate steady at 3.85% earlier in the day.

Neighbour Japan released trade data for April that said exports grew 38% year-on-year, imports grew 12.8% year-on-year and the trade balance stood at JPY255.3 billion.

In Australia, employment data for April was mixed as the employment change declined by 36,000 jobs while the unemployment rate fell to a year-low of 5.5%.

In other precious metals, palladium gained 0.3% and platinum edged up 0.2%, while silver eased 0.3%.