By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Tuesday morning in Asia as investors await U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision, which will be handed down on Apr.29.
Gold futures edged down 0.11% to $1,778.10 by 11:20 PM ET (3:20 AM GMT). The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, edged up on Tuesday.
Investors will mainly focus on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's outlook on the economy, but no major surprises are expected in the central bank’s decision.
Meanwhile, demand for U.S.-made capital goods rose in March and shipments surged, indicating that the accelerated economic growth in the first quarter due to government aid and increasing rates of COVID-19 vaccination gave demand a boost.
In Asia, the Bank of Japan will hand down its own policy decision later in the day, with the central bank expected to maintain its massive stimulus measures and inflation also predicted to miss its 2% target for years to come. The country’s imposition of a state of emergency on Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures earlier in the week to curb the rising number of COVID-19 cases also casts a shadow over its recent economic growth on the back of solid global demand.
India, meanwhile, ordered its armed forces to help battle against COVID-19 on Monday, as the number of cases topped 17.3 million as of Apr. 27 according to Johns Hopkins University data.
In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1% while platinum was up 0.3%. Palladium steadied at $2,924.93 per ounce after hitting a record high of $2,941 on Monday.