Gold prices inched down on Thursday in Asia ahead of upcoming central bank decisions.
Gold futures for August delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 0.1% to $1,421.95 by 1:32 AM ET (05:32 GMT).
Markets attention will be on the European Central Bank (ECB) rate decision due later in the day as soft economic data including from Germany and France fuelled hopes that the ECB might cut rates at its meeting.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) and the U.S. Federal Reserve will also meet next week.
“We expect the BOJ to become a little bit more dovish next week by changing the forward guidance,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at Sony Financial Holdings, in a Reuters report.
“We don’t think the BOJ will announce anything so radical, probably because it’s a day ahead of the FOMC meeting. A key factor is dollar/yen.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was unchanged at 97.460.
On the Sino-U.S. trade front, officials from the U.S. and China will resume in-person trade talks in Beijing as soon as next week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
“I would say there are a lot of issues,” Mnuchin said. “My expectations is this will be followed up with a meeting back in D.C. after this and hopefully we’ll continue to progress.”
