By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Tuesday morning in Asia, with a weakening dollar giving the yellow metal a boost. Investors are now looking to U.S. economic data due later in the week to gains clues to when the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin asset tapering.
Gold futures were up 0.33% to $1,818.15 by 12:05 AM ET (4:05 AM GMT). The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched down and remained near two-week lows on Tuesday.
The greenback steadied from its falls after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell did not provide a clear timeline for asset tapering and interest rate hikes during the previous week’s Jackson Hole symposium. He only suggested that the asset tapering timeline could be “within 2021.”
However, Fed President Loretta Mester said she is not yet convinced that recent inflation readings will be enough to satisfy the conditions to begin asset tapering, despite the U.S. economy’s continuing recovery from COVID-19.
The latest U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, will be released on Friday. Data released on Monday showed that pending home sales fell 1.8% month-on-month in July.
In Asia Pacific, data released earlier in the day showed a slowdown in China’s factory activity in August. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) at 50.1 and the non-manufacturing PMI at 47.5, below the 50-mark indicating growth.
The world’s second-largest economy is still feeling the impact of recent strict lockdowns to curb the latest COVID-19 outbreak in the country as well as high material prices.
In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1% and platinum eased 0.3% to $1,003.89. Palladium fell 0.7% after jumping 3.1% during the previous session.