Gold prices headed lower on Thursday despite a weaker dollar amid ebbing trade concerns as investors awaited economic data later in the session and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s policy session next week.
At 5:54 AM ET (9:54 GMT), gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange slipped $0.70 or 0.06%, to $1,207.60 a troy ounce.
The precious metal has dropped about 11.6% from a peak in April as escalating U.S.-China trade dispute and rising U.S. interest rates were cited as catalysts for the selling in gold.
Reports of the tariffs imposed by the U.S. and China on each other’s goods being set at lower levels than expected were cited as a headwind for dollar prices, which is seen as a safe-haven asset.
The dollar was also under pressure after a report said that the U.S. and Canada are unlikely to reach an agreement on NAFTA this week.
On Thursday’s economic calendar, weekly jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for September will be released at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT) to be followed by August existing home sales at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT).
Investors looked ahead to the next Federal Reserve policy decision to be announced on Sept. 26.
Markets currently expect the Fed to hike rates by a quarter of a point, while fed fund futures price in an additional increase at the end of the year at more than an 80% probability.
Rising U.S. interest rates were also cited as headwind for the precious metal.
In other metals trading, silver futures dipped 0.04% at $14.275 a troy ounce by 5:56 AM ET (9:56 GMT).
Palladium futures rose 0.22% to $1,033.10 an ounce, while sister metal platinumtraded up 0.10% at $822.70.
In base metals, copper fell 0.49% to $2.716 a pound.
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