Investing.com - Gold prices ticked higher in European trade on Thursday, but stayed within sight of the prior session's eight-week low as investors digested the latest minutes from the Federal Reserve while awaiting fresh U.S. economic reports.
Comex gold futures were at $1,224.06 a troy ounce by 6:00AM ET (1000GMT), up $2.30, or around 0.2%. The yellow metal fell to the lowest since May 9 at $1,216.50 in the prior session.
The minutes of the Fed’s June policy meeting released on Wednesday showed a lack of consensus among policymakers over the outlook for inflation and how it could impact on the future pace of interest rate increases.
Several officials also wanted to announce a start to the process of reducing the Fed's large portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities by the end of August, but others preferred to wait until later in the year.
The Fed hiked rates at its June meeting and stuck to its forecast for one more rate hike this year, but the subdued inflation outlook has since raised doubts over whether the U.S. central bank will be able to stick to its planned tightening path.
Investors were turning their attention to upcoming U.S. economic data for fresh direction.
The U.S. was to release the ADP employment report later Thursday along with the ISM non-manufacturing PMI and a report on initial jobless claims.
The U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for June was due out on Friday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was slightly lower at 95.88 in early trade, off Wednesday’s one-week highs of 96.25.
Also on the Comex, silver futures tacked on 9.3 cents, or roughly 0.6%, to $15.99 a troy ounce, after falling to $15.85 on Wednesday, a level not seen since December 2016.
Among other precious metals, platinum was little changed at $909.55, while palladium rose 0.5% to $838.92 an ounce.