Gold prices edge higher as spotlight shifts to US inflation data
Tue Aug 12 2025
Gold prices slightly recovered on Tuesday, after a sharp fall in the previous session, as investors looked forward to U.S. inflation data that could offer further insight into the Federal Reserve's rate-cut trajectory.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was up 0.3% at $3,355.59 per ounce, as of 0105 GMT. U.S. gold futures for December delivery edged 0.1% higher to $3,406.80.
* Gold prices slipped 1.6% on Monday, while futures dropped by more than 2% after U.S. President Donald Trump said tariffs will not be placed on imported gold bars, easing jitters in the market.
* All eyes are on U.S. consumer prices index data, which is due at 1230 GMT. Economists polled by Reuters project core CPI to have risen 0.3% in July, pushing the annual rate higher to 3%, away from the U.S. Fed target of 2%.
* Traders are pricing in around a 90% chance of a Fed rate cut next month. Gold tends to perform well during periods of uncertainty and in a low-interest-rate environment.
* Trump has repeatedly criticised the Fed for not cutting rates at recent meetings, and markets are eyeing who will succeed current Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May.
* Meanwhile, Trump has signed an executive order extending a pause in sharply higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports for another 90 days, a White House official said on Monday.
* On the geopolitical front, Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 in Alaska to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
* Elsewhere, spot silver gained 0.6% to $37.81 per ounce, platinum rose 0.7% to $1,336.14 and palladium climbed 0.9% to $1,145.32.