Gold bars are stored in a safe deposit room in Munich, Jan. 28, 2026.
Angelika Warmuth | Reuters
Gold inched higher on Monday, while investors awaited key U.S. inflation data that could shape expectations for the Federal Reserve’s policy moves.
Spot gold was up 0.2% at $4,351.90 an ounce. Prices hit their highest since June 17 on Friday after weak U.S. nonfarm payrolls data. U.S. gold futures added 0.4% to $4,416.0 on Monday.
“Gold is pressured by the firm dollar index and is kind of at a pause today ahead of key inflation report that is out later this week,” said Jim Wyckoff, a market analyst at American Gold Exchange.
The U.S. dollar index gained 0.2%, making dollar-priced bullion more expensive for buyers overseas.
Investors await the U.S. consumer price data due on Wednesday and producer price data on Thursday for clues on the Fed’s interest-rate outlook.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the July consumer price index to have risen 3.4% year-on-year, versus 3.5% in June.
“The CPI data is going to be important. Inflation is starting to cool a little bit, with markets expecting a report that’s not going to be hot on inflation, and will lead to gold trading sideways to higher in the near term.”
Data last week showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly shed jobs in July, while previously reported job gains for the prior two months were revised sharply lower, tempering financial market expectations of a rate hike from the Fed next month.
Still, traders are pricing in a 46% chance of a rate hike in September and a 79% chance in December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. FEDWATCH/
Bullion is generally less attractive in a high-interest-rate environment because of its non-yielding characteristic.
Meanwhile, Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz, but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions before the strategic waterway is reopened.
Platinum fell 0.3% to $1,740.16, and palladium lost 0.4% to $1,372.
