Investing.com - Gold prices rose in Asia Wednesday as investors awaited the results of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for February delivery traded at USD1,230.30 a troy ounce, up 0.26%, after hitting an an overnight session low of USD1,227.10 a troy ounce and high of USD1,247.50 a troy ounce. Overnight, the Department of Labor reported earlier that the U.S. consumer price index came in flat in November after falling 0.1% in October. Analysts were calling for a 0.1% uptick. The annual rate of inflation rose 1.2% in November, just shy of expectations for 1.3% reading but still up from a four-year low of 1.0% in October. U.S. core inflation, stripped of volatile food and energy items, rose 0.2% in November from October, beating expectations for a 0.1% gain, while the year-on-year rate for November rose 1.7%, which met consensus forecasts. Core prices are viewed by the Federal Reserve as a better gauge of longer-term inflationary pressure because they exclude the volatile food and energy categories. Monetary authorities usually try to aim for 2% core inflation or less. With inflation rates refusing to serve as a clearly visible weather vane pointing to the direction of monetary policy, investors avoided the precious metal until the Fed releases is policy statement on Wednesday. Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for March delivery was up 0.44% at USD19.928 a troy ounce, while copper for March delivery rose 0.27% and trading at USD3.321 a pound.

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