By Gina Lee

– Gold was down on Tuesday morning in Asia, but remained near a two-month high hit during the previous session. A softer dollar, alongside key central banks insisting that inflation will be temporary and that interest rate hikes are not immediately required, capped the yellow metal’s losses.

Gold futures were down 0.14% to $1,825.45 by 11:07 PM ET (4:07 AM GMT), after hitting its highest level since Sep. 7 on Monday. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched down on Tuesday and remained near the previous session’s lows.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield was little changed at 1.4862% after climbing 4 basis points in the previous session.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials continued a debate on the job market’s recovery, and how much longer the central bank can tolerate high inflation.

Chicago Fed Bank President Charles Evans admitted on Monday that he is slightly more nervous about inflation remaining high than previously, but still expects the Fed will not need to hike interest rates until 2023. His colleague, Fed Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly, will speak later in the day.

On the supply side, Russia produced 256.54 tons of gold between January and September, up from 253.77 tons it produced in the same period in 2020, according to its finance ministry.

In the United Arab Emirates, gold refineries will be reportedly required to undergo annual audits to ensure their suppliers are responsible, in the country's effort to combat illicit trading.

In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1% and platinum was down 0.4%, while palladium edged up 0.2%.