By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Wednesday morning in Asia, retreating from a more than two-month high as the dollar strengthened.
Gold futures edged down 0.11% to $1,828.75 by 11:24 PM ET (4:24 AM GMT), but remained above the $1,800 mark. They climbed to their highest level since Sep. 3 earlier in the session. The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched up on Wednesday.
The debate on when the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates continues. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard noted corporate pricing power and has already penciled in two interest rate hikes in 2022. Meanwhile, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly expects “eye-popping” inflation to subside in 2022 as supply-chain bottlenecks subside.
Across the Atlantic, De Nederlandsche Bank President Klaas Knot said that Eurozone inflation could fall back below 2% in late 2022. The European Central Bank should prepare for a less benign scenario, avoiding long policy commitments as upside risks dominate, he added.
Easy monetary policy to spur economic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic has propelled the yellow metal to record levels during the last two years.
Tuesday’s U.S. data showed that the producer price index (PPI) grew 0.6% month-on-month and 8.6% year-on-year. The core PPI grew 0.4% month-on-month, and the consumer price index (CPI) figure is due later in the day.
In Asia Pacific, Chinese inflation data, released earlier in the day, showed that the CPI grew 0.7% month-on-month and 1.5% year-on-year in October. The PPI grew by 13.5% year on year.
In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1%, while platinum eased 0.6% to $1,052.68. Palladium was up 0.4%.