Investing.com - Gold prices edged higher on Thursday in Asia and traded near a 5-month high amid U.S. yield curve inversion.
Gold futures for February delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $2.35, or 0.19%, to $1,244.95 a troy ounce by 12:30 AM ET (05:30 GMT).
Gold prices hit a high of $1,247.50 on Tuesday, the level last seen on July 2018.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies last traded at 96.970, down 0.04%.
The yield curve inversion triggered concerns about economic growth and a dollar sell-off recently. The two-year/10-year spread was at its flattest this week in more than a decade amid a sharp fall in long-term rates. A flatter curve is seen as an indicator of a slowing economy.
The upcoming Federal Reserve policy decision is also expected to be in focus, as the Dec. 18-19 meeting looms just over the horizon.
The greenback came under pressure last week when the market took comments from Fed chairman Jerome Powell as signalling a slower pace of rate hikes.
That more dovish tone led markets to question how many times the central bank will hike rates in 2019. Markets still expect the Fed to move forward with a quarter-point hike this month but have interpreted cautious remarks from policymakers to mean that further tightening in 2019 will have to be reevaluated on economic and inflation data.