By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Tuesday morning in Asia, with a strengthening dollar taking some of the shine off the yellow metal. Investors also await policy decisions from several key central banks, starting in Australia, as concerns about rising inflation continue.
Gold futures edged down 0.19% to $1,792.40 by 11:19 PM ET (3:19 AM GMT). The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched up on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia will hand down its policy decision later in the day.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will hand down its latest policy decision on Wednesday. The Fed faces the challenge of price and wage increases at multi-decade highs as it attempts to balance rising inflation and give the economy as much time as possible to restore the jobs lost due to COVID-19. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is now betting that the Fed will hike interest rate hikes in July 2022, a year earlier than its previous forecast, due to expectations that inflation will remain elevated.
The Bank of England will hand down its policy decision on Thursday, in what could be its most unpredictable interest rate decision in years. Investors are mulling the chances of the central bank announcing its first interest rate hikes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the data front, the U.S. Institute of Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), released on Monday, was 60.8 in October. The manufacturing PMI was a lower-than-expected 58.4.
The ISM non-manufacturing PMI is due on Wednesday. Trade data, including exports and imports, will be released on Thursday, and the latest U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, will follow on Friday.
In other precious metals, silver edged down 0.2% and platinum dropped 0.7%. Palladium was flat at $2,047.26.