By Zhang Mengying
Investing.com – Gold was up on Wednesday morning in Asia. The U.S. dollar strengthened ahead of U.S. inflation data for June, which is expected to hit a record high.
Gold futures inched up 0.06% to $1,726.00 by 11:36 PM ET (0336 GMT). The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, edged up on Wednesday morning.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose, denting the demand for non-yielding gold.
Investors now await U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for more clues on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path, which is due later in the day. Analysts predicted that the print would hit a pandemic peak in June from a year earlier, the largest jump since 1981.
The CPI data could fuel investors’ expectations for a 75-basis-point interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve later this month, as the U.S. central bank seeks to tame inflation.
SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.17 to 1,021.52 tons on Tuesday from 1,023.27 tons on Monday.
In Asia-Pacific, South Korea’s central bank joined its global peers and delivered earlier in the day a historic half-point interest rate hike to bring down soaring prices.
In other precious metals, silver fell 0.30%. Platinum jumped 0.36% while palladium edged down 0.11%.