Investing.com - Gold prices eased in Asia on Thursday with attention on the next Federal Reserve review of rates next week.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for June delivery traded down 0.59% to $1,247.00 a troy ounce.
Silver futures for May delivery dropped 0.88% to $16.985 a troy ounce, while copper futures gained 0.18% to $2.240 a pound.
Overnight, gold inched up in quiet, restrained trading as investors continued to await next week's interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve for further indications on the path of tightening the U.S. central bank will embark on for the remainder of 2016.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, analysts expect gold to remain in a holding pattern for the next several days ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) interest rate decision on April 27.
In each of its first two meetings this year, the FOMC has held its benchmark Federal Funds Rate steady at a targeted range between 0.25 and 0.50%.
While the FOMC is unexpected to raise short-term interest rates at next week's meeting, the Fed could provide clues on the timing of its next rate hike.
Since the FOMC voted 9-1 in March to leave interest rates unchanged, several hawkish members have appeared to have broken ranks with Fed chair Janet Yellen, who has remained adamant that the Fed should proceed cautiously with further tightening. Though the FOMC estimated in December that it could raise short-term rates as much as four times this year, the Fed lowered the projections last month amid weak global economic and financial conditions.
Any rate hikes this year are viewed as bearish for gold which struggles to compete with high-yield bearing assets in rising rate environments.
Gold leveled off after hitting session-highs in overnight, Asian trading. Investors in China continue to adjust to Tuesday's launch of the Shanghai Gold Fix, a twice-a-day price fixing mechanism at the world's largest physical gold exchange. The Shanghai Gold Exchange, which has listed more than 15 institutions as market makers for the fix, now sets two prices for gold in yuan-denominated terms each day.
"The Shanghai gold benchmark will provide a fair and tradable yuan-denominated gold fix price … will help improve yuan pricing mechanism and promote internationalization of the Chinese gold market,” said Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC).
China is the world's largest producer of gold and the world's second-largest consumer of the yellow metal.