Investing.com - Gold prices dipped on Tuesday in Asia as investors looked ahead to the July Federal Reserve meeting minutes later this week and keep an eye on the exchange rate in China.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for December delivery eased 0.18% to $1,116.40 a troy ounce.
Silver for September delivery fell 0.15% to $15.275 a troy ounce.
Copper for September delivery dropped 0.09% to 2.319 a pound.
Overnight, gold futures rose considerably in spite of a stronger dollar, as the People's Bank of China resumed its efforts to stabilize its currency nearly a week after it fell to its lowest level in more than three years.
In Beijing, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) maintained its push to stabilize the yuan, days after its currency suffered its most tumultuous week in years.
China is the world's largest producer and second-largest consumer of gold behind India.
Over the weekend, the International Monetary Fund hinted that the seismic yuan reforms may bring China closer to a floating rate system, shifting away from its current managed float regime. In a staff report on key macroeconomic issues affecting Chinese economic growth, the IMF suggested that significant exchange rate flexibility could help the world's second-largest economy integrate more effectively into the global financial markets.
“We believe that China can, and should, aim for an effectively floating exchange rate regime within 2–3 years,” wrote Markus Rodlauer, IMF mission chief for China, in the report. "In this regard, the IMF noted that the new mechanism for determining the central parity of the Renminbi announced by the central bank is a welcome step as it should allow market forces to have a greater role in determining the exchange rate."
Metal traders also await the release of the Federal Open Market Committee's minutes from its July meeting for further indications from the Federal Reserve later this week on the timing of a potential interest rate hike. While the Fed is expected to raise its benchmark for short-term interest rates before the end of the year, it has not indicated if it will do so during its September or December meeting.