By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Wednesday morning in Asia but remained near its lowest level in four weeks. The dollar steadied ahead of a much-awaited U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision.
Gold futures inched up 0.10% to $1,858.30 by 11:35 PM ET (3:35 AM GMT).
The Fed will hand down its decision as it wraps up a two-day meeting later in the day, with investors on the lookout for clues as to when the central bank will start tapering assets. Despite the insistence from Fed officials to date that monetary policy will continue to remain dovish for some time, concerns about rising inflation triggered the yellow metal’s retreat from an almost five-month high.
Fed officials could project interest-rate liftoff in 2023 but are not expected to signal asset tapering until August or September 2021.
“The recent weakness is linked to concerns that the Fed will tighten monetary policy soon... a slight strengthening of the dollar has also weighed on the precious metal,” Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:CMWAY) commodities analyst Vivek Dhar told Bloomberg.
The Fed is one of several central banks due to hand down policy decisions. The Swiss National Bank and Norges Bank will hand down their decisions on Thursday, followed by the Bank of Japan on Friday.
Meanwhile, Metals Focus predicted a recovery in gold demand from jewelers and central banks in 2021 but this will remain below pre-COVID-19 levels. However, gold purchases by exchange traded funds will fall sharply, the consultant added.
In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1% and platinum edged down 0.2%, while palladium inched up 0.1%.