By Gina Lee

– Gold was up on Thursday morning in Asia, boosted by a fall in U.S. bond yields. However, strong risk appetite in equity markets kept bullion’s gains in check.

Gold futures edged up 0.13% to $1,801.15 by 12:14 AM ET (4:14 AM GMT), remaining above the $1,800 mark. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched up on Thursday while benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields fell to a near two-week low.

“We are in a consolidation period for gold, but I think that eventually the policy tightening and inflation concerns should be positive for gold,” OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya told Reuters.

“Earnings have been fairly impressive, and that is surprising a lot of people... U.S. tech stocks are a favorite place to go for many investors, which is dampening the demand for a safe haven right now,” he added.

Investors now await the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank (ECB) policy decision, due to be handed down later in the day. Both central banks are expected to keep policy unchanged with the ECB likely to push back against expectations for an interest rate hike in 2022, according to Reuters. They also await the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting on Nov. 3 for more clues on the asset tapering timeline.

In other precious metals, silver was steady at $24.04 per ounce, while platinum edged up 0.2% and palladium gained 0.4%.