By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, as investors await key central bank policy decisions throughout the week and high U.S. consumer prices gave the yellow metal a boost.
Gold futures inched up 0.10% to $1,786.55 by 11:07 PM ET (4:07 AM GMT) after climbing 0.8% on Friday. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, also inched up on Monday ahead of around 20 central bank meetings, several of which will likely drive markets throughout the week.
The Fed is widely expected to quicken the pace of asset tapering when its hands down its policy decision on Wednesday, which could also herald earlier-than-expected interest rate hikes.
The European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan will also hand down their policy decisions later in the week. ECB could halve the number of assets it buys each month from April, said a Reuters poll.
On the data front, Friday's U.S. consumer price index (CPI) grew 6.8% year on year and 0.8% month on month in November, while the core CPI grew 4.9% year on year and 0.5% month on month. This is the largest annual gain since 1982.
In Asia Pacific, Japanese data released earlier in the day showed that the Tankan large manufacturers' index was 18, and the Tankan large non-manufacturers index was 9, for the fourth quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, demand for physical gold was healthy in top Asian hubs last week, with domestic prices retreating into the year-end. However, rates volatility deterred retail buyers and jewelers in India.
In other precious metals, silver gained 0.4%, platinum was flat at $942.00 and palladium jumped 1.4%.