Gold Up, Investors Digest Mixed China Inflation Data

Gold was up on Wednesday morning in Asia as investors digested mixed inflation data from China and waited for similar data from the U.S. on Thursday.

Gold Futures edged up 0.12% to $1,896.65 by 10:11 AM ET (5:11 AM GMT). The dollar , which usually moves inversely to gold, inched up on Wednesday while the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields fell to their lowest in more than a month.

Data released earlier in the day showed that the Chinese consumer price index (CPI) for May contracted 0.2% month-on-month and increased 1.3% year-on-year. However, the producer price index (PPI) jumped 9% year-on-year, exceeding expectations.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s unemployment rate rose 3.8% in May, slightly higher than April’s 3.7% growth, indicating that the number of people employed continued to rise.

In the U.S., JOLTs Job Openings in April increased to 9.286 million, higher than both the 8.3 million figures in forecasts prepared by Investing.com and March’s 8.288 million.

Investors now await the U.S. core CPI index data for May due on Thursday for further clues on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s timeline to change its current dovish monetary policy.

“The tight trading ranges seen so far this month reflect the cautious mood in the market ahead of the inflation numbers… whilst the Fed reassures that this spike in inflation is temporary, policymakers will need to be out in their droves to calm the market,” City Index senior financial markets analyst Fiona Cincotta told Bloomberg.

Across the Atlantic, investors are also paying attention to the European Central Bank’s policy decision, due to be handed down on Jun. 10. Meanwhile, world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are expected to attend the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit due to open on Friday in the U.K.