Gold prices muted before inflation data, copper sinks on Zambia discovery
Investing.com-- Gold prices moved little in holiday-thinned Asian trade on Monday, with the yellow metal keeping to a trading range established over the past week as traders sought more cues from upcoming U.S. inflation data.
Among industrial metals, copper prices hit a near three-month low after KoBold Metals- a startup backed by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) founder Bill Gates, found a large copper deposit in Zambia that could form a major copper mine.
Waning expectations of early interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve saw gold fall back into a $2,000 to $2,050 trading range in February, as markets began steadily pricing out chances of a rate cut in March and May.
A dearth of direct cues over the past week also gave gold few cues, with traders now looking to the upcoming consumer price index (CPI) data as the next big signal.
Spot gold fell 0.1% to $2,023.48 an ounce, while gold futures expiring in April fell 0.1% to $2,037.20 an ounce by 00:07 ET (05:07 GMT). Trading volumes in the two were muted on account of market holidays in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.
Gold is expected to see little action ahead of U.S. CPI data on Tuesday. While the reading is expected to show that inflation eased further in January, price pressures are still expected to remain well above the Fed’s 2% annual target, giving the central bank more impetus to keep interest rates higher for longer.
Along with the inflation data, a sting of Fed officials, including Neel Kashkari, Mary Daly and Ralph Bostic are on tap this week.
Fed officials are expected to reiterate recent comments that the central bank is in no hurry to begin trimming interest rates. This notion had sparked steep losses in gold earlier in February, given that higher
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