By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Tuesday morning in Asia, with a rebounding dollar and U.S. Treasury yields boxing the yellow metal in a tight $4 range.
Gold futures inched down 0.06% to $1,778.50 by 10:52 PM ET (3:52 AM GMT). The dollar edged down on Tuesday but remained above the $96 mark as fears over the new omicron COVID-19 variant slowly begin to recede.
Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said on Monday that inflation in the U.K. could "comfortably exceed" 5% in April 2022 and that a tight labor market risked becoming a more persistent source of inflation.
Investors have found it difficult to predict how central banks will adjust their monetary policies to curb high inflation. They now look to the following week, when the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England will hand down their December policy decisions in the space of 24 hours.
In Asia Pacific, the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its interest rate steady at 0.10% as it handed down its policy decision earlier in the day. The Reserve Bank of India following a day later.
On the data front, Chinese data released earlier in the day showed that exports grew 22% year-on-year, and imports grew 31.7% year-on-year, in November. The trade balance was at $71.72 billion.
The Perth Mint said on Monday that sales of gold products in November jumped about 94% from the previous month to an eight-month peak. SPDR Gold Trust (P:GLD) said its holdings fell about 0.2% to 982.64 tons on Monday from 984.38 tons on Friday.
In other precious metals, silver edged down 0.2% and palladium was down 0.3%. Platinum was steady at $938.00.