Investing.com - Gold rose slightly in ASia on Wednesday with possible China trade data on the deck to set the tone.
China is expected to report trade data with a surplus balance of $46.64 billion seen, with imports down 4.1% in June year-on-year and exports down 5.0%.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for August delivery rose 0.15% to $1,337.35 a troy ounce.
Silver futures for August delivery gained 1.24% to $20.422 a troy ounce, while copper futures for September delivery jumped 2.58% to $2.270 a pound.
Overnight, gold fell sharply in broad risk-on trade, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to an all-time intraday high on Tuesday morning, dampening the precious metal's demand as a safe-haven asset.
U.S. stocks opened at record-highs, as the Dow surged more than 100 points to an intra-session high of 18,353.76, eclipsing the previous all-time intraday high of 18,351.36 from last May. Since tumbling by more than 850 points over a two-day, post-Brexit sell-off, the Dow has rallied approximately 1,300 points during the massive global equities rally. At the same time, the S&P 500 Composite index reached fresh intraday highs for the second consecutive session, while the NASDAQ Composite index erased all of its losses on the calendar year.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis president James Bullard reiterated his position that current economic conditions deem it appropriate for the U.S. central bank to raise short-term rates only once over the next two years. While delivering a speech in St. Louis, Bullard noted that a flattening yield curve from plummeting long-term U.S. Treasury yields does not necessarily imply signals of an imminent recession. In the wake of last month's Brexit decision, government bond yields worldwide, including those on U.S. 10-Year and 30-Year Treasuries have plunged to all-time record lows.
"Wall Street is taking it as a signal that growth is slowing. I think it is a flight to safety following the Brexit shock," Bullard said. "That is driving yields down and I would not take it as a signal of U.S. growth prospects."
Despite Bullard's dovish position, analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:NYSE:GS) said Tuesday they still anticipate that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will "return to hiking rates," before long. Following a relatively strong U.S. employment report for the month of June, the Fed Futures Rate for a single rate hike in 2016 increased to 32.7% on Tuesday, up from 12% before last Friday's release.
Investors who are bullish on gold are in favor of a gradual tightening of monetary policy by the Fed. Gold, which is not attached to interest rates, struggles to compete with high-yield bearing assets in rising rate environments.