By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia but was headed towards a second weekly loss. The focus is now on a U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision that could provide clues on when asset tapering will begin.
Gold futures edged up 0.12% to $1,758.75 by 11:39 PM ET (3:39 AM GMT). The yellow metal fell as much as 2.7% on Thursday and has dropped 1.8% so far in the past week.
The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched down on Friday but remained near three-week highs.
The U.S. currency was boosted by data released on Thursday that showed that U.S. core retail sales grew 1.8% month-on-month and retail sales grew 0.7% month-on-month in August.
September's Philadelphia Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index was 30.7, while the Philly Fed Employment was at 26.3. Initial jobless claims increased to 332,000 over the past week.
Investors now await the Michigan Consumer Expectations and Michigan Consumer Sentiment indexes for September, due later in the day.
Some investors now expect the asset tapering to begin in November, according to a Reuters poll, as COVID-19 outbreaks involving the Delta variant likely dented economic recovery in the third quarter.
The Fed will meet next week to hand down its policy decision, which could provide clues to a timeline.
Across the Atlantic, European Central Bank (ECB) chief economist Philip Lane revealed in a private meeting with German economists that it expects to hit its 2% inflation goal by 2025, the Financial Times said on Thursday. However, ECB has since rejected the accuracy of the article, which had caused Bund futures to drop.
In other precious metals, silver was flat at $22.93 per ounce after hitting its lowest in more than a month on Thursday. Platinum rose 0.6% while palladium inched down 0.1%.