Gold Down but Remains Above $1,800 Over Soft Dollar, Fed Taper Doubts By Investing.com

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was down on Tuesday morning in Asia but remained above the $1,800 mark. The weakened and investors increased bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will delay beginning asset tapering.

were up 0.52% to $1,824.25 by 12:19 AM ET (4:19 AM GMT), after hitting a two-and-a-half-month high during the previous week over a disappointing U.S. jobs report.

The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, edged down on Tuesday.

On the central bank front, the handing down its policy decision on Thursday. The will hand down its policy decision later in the day, with the following a day later.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to delay beginning asset tapering after the jobs report released last Friday showed weaker-than-expected . Investors will now see whether any of the central banks handing down policy decisions throughout the week will begin tapering their assets.

On the data front, August’s , released earlier in the day, was better than expected. grew 25.6% year-on-year and grew 33.1% year-on-year, while the was at $58.34 billion.

However, Japan’s household spending grew less than expected in July, contracting 0.9% while expanding 0.7% .

In India, gold imports in August nearly doubled year-on-year thanks to strong demand and as weaker prices prompted jewelers to increase purchases for the upcoming festive season, according to a government source.

In other precious metals, silver firmed 0.4% to $24.76 per ounce and palladium was flat at $2,410.52, while platinum inched up 0.1%.