Investing.com - Gold held early gains in Asia on Friday with investors cautious ahead of consumer and producer prices data from China.
Gold for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.15% to $1,258.65 a troy ounce.
Also on the Comex, silver futures for December delivery gained 0.34% to $17.571 a troy ounce and copper futures edged up 0.05% to $2.124 a pound.
China reports CPI for September with a gain of 0.3% seen month-on-month and a 1.6% increase year-on-year. As well PPI data is expected to show a fall of 0.3% year-on-year.
Overnight, gold prices held on to overnight gains during North America's session on Thursday, as the U.S. dollar and global stock markets pulled back after surprisingly weak Chinese trade data raised fresh concern about the world's second-largest economy.
China's September exports plunged, while imports unexpectedly shrank after picking up in August, suggesting signs of steadying in the world's second-largest economy may be short-lived.
Exports tumbled 10.0% from a year earlier, far worse than forecasts for a decline of 3.0%, while imports dropped 1.9%, compared to expectations for a gain of 1.0%. That left China with a trade surplus of $41.99 billion for the month, the lowest in six months, the General Administration of Customs said on Thursday.
The downbeat figures triggered a fall in global equities and a drop in the U.S. dollar and gave a lift to safe-haven assets, such as gold and the yen.
China is the world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for nearly 45% of world consumption.
Meanwhile, minutes of the Federal Reserve's September policy meeting released on Wednesday showed several voting members of the policy committee judged a rate hike would be warranted "relatively soon" if the U.S. economy continued to strengthen.
Markets are currently pricing in around a 69.5% chance of a rate hike at December's meeting, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Gold is sensitive to moves in U.S. rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion.