Gold resumes decline from one-month high

Gold futures tilted lower in American trade away from January 25 highs for the fifth session out of six as the dollar rebounded also for the fifth session out of six from December 17, 2014 lows, following earlier data from China. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will testify before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and to the House Committee on Financial Services and submit a report on monetary policy and Fed's outlook.  

As of 02:57 GMT, gold futures due on April 15 fell 0.21% to $1,329.90 an ounce from the opening of $1,332.70, while the dollar index rose 0.20% to 89.91 from the opening of 89.74. 

Earlier Chinese data showed the CB leading Index accelerated to 1.6 in January from December's 1.4 reading. 

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley is due to participate in a panel discussion about the Fed's balance sheet at the United States Monetary Policy Forum, in New York, while Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester will participate in a panel discussion about monetary policy objectives at the United States Monetary Policy Forum, in New York.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams will speak about economic and monetary policy at the City Club of Los Angeles, while earlier this week, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the January 30-31 meeting, at which policymakers held interest rates unchanged between 1.25% and 1.50%, while expecting inflation to settle at 2% in the next 12 months.

At the last meeting under Janet Yellen, policymakers asserted the path of policy tightening and three rate hikes this year, while expanding the plans of normalizing the balance sheet. 

Markets now look forward to the Fed's March 20-21 meeting, the first under new Chair Jerome Powell, at which policymakers will release their three-year forecasts for inflation, unemployment, growth, and interest rates. 

Gold holdings at the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed investment fund, settled unchanged on Thursday at 827.79 tonnes, the highest since February 6, after rising 3%, or 23.63 tonnes in 2017.