Gold Down Ahead of U.S. Inflation Data By Investing.com

By Zhang Mengying

Investing.com – Gold was down on Wednesday morning in Asia as investors awaited the for more clues on the interest rate hikes.

inched down 0.05% to $1,851.05 by 11:01 PM ET (3:01 AM GMT). , which normally moves inversely to gold, edged up on Wednesday morning.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that inflation might remain high, and the Biden administration is likely to increase the 4.7% inflation forecast for this year in its budget proposal.

Gold-related transactions involving Russia may be sanctioned, and any efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions using gold are closely monitored, Yellen said.

Monetary policies are still on investors’ radar, they now await Friday’s U.S. CPI data for clues on the interest rate hike path.

The for global growth this year to 2.9% from a January prediction of 4.1%, as concerns of inflation, supply disruptions, and higher interest rates persist.

In Asia Pacific, Japan’s first-quarter economy beat expectations with the country’s shrank 0.5% in January-March year-on-year, smaller than the preliminary reading of 1.0% drop released last month.

hiked interest rates to 0.85% on Tuesday.

In other precious metals, edged down 0.12%. fell 0.28% while jumped 0.74%.