Gold Slowly Climbs, FOMC Minutes Awaited

<p>&nbsp;Gold stuck around the same price as investors awaited the release of FOMC meeting minutes for more clues on the direction of the Federal Reserve (Fed).</p><p><br /></p><p>The Asian session saw the yellow metal hovering at $1,923 per ounce, while gold futures traded at $1,931 per ounce.</p><p><br /></p><p>The latest data showed that the US manufacturing sector continued to contract in June with the lowest reading in nearly three years.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In fact, the measure of inflation released last Friday, personal consumption expenditure (PCE) also showed that inflation in the United States is easing.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell continued to repeat his statement about the possibility that interest rates will be raised further to bring inflation down to the central bank's 2% target.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, there is some more data for investors to watch this week besides the FOMC minutes, especially the US NFP jobs report.</p>