Gold Up Over Weaker U.S. Dollar, Investors Now Await U.S. Inflation Data

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By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Tuesday morning in Asia, with a weaker dollar lending support and with U.S. inflation data due later in the week.

Gold futures were up 0.36% to $1,805.25 by 11:13 PM ET (4:13 AM GMT). The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, edged down on Tuesday. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes moved down from an almost two-year high of 1.808% to 1.778%.

"Pullback in both the dollar and 10-year treasury yields are supporting gold prices, but the fact that markets are still seeing three to four interest rate hikes this year is limiting the upside potential," DailyFX strategist Margaret Yang told Reuters.

Investors now await incumbent U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's nomination hearing before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee later in the day for fresh clues on the timing and pace of monetary policy tightening. Fed vice-chair nominee Lael Brainard’s hearing before the committee will take place on Thursday.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now expects the Fed to raise interest rates four times in 2022, alongside analysts at J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank.

"Markets are seeing 5.4% year-on-year growth in core inflation and if numbers surpass this forecast, we may see the dollar moving up even higher and gold prices dropping. However, if the inflation rate comes below expectation, that may provide some relief for gold," said Yang.

On the data front, the U.S. consumer price index and the Fed Beige Book will be released on Wednesday, with the producer price index following a day later.

In Asia Pacific, China will release its consumer and producer price indexes on Wednesday, while in Australia, retail sales grew 7.3% month-on-month, and the trade balance was AUD9.423 billion in November.

In other precious metals, silver was up 0.4%, platinum rose 1% and palladium gained 0.5%.