Investing.com - Gold prices edged higher in Asia Friday in bargain hunting, rebounding from overnight weakness on heightened sentiment the Federal Reserve will now have room to taper its USD85 billion a month bond-buying program next week. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for February delivery traded at USD1,225.70a troy ounce, up 0.07%, after hitting an overnight session low of USD1,224.40 a troy ounce and high of USD1,256.50 a troy ounce. The commodity shrugged off U.S. House approval Thursday of a two-year budget agreement drafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated at a Thursday briefing that he expects the Senate to approve the package next week. The Ryan-Murray budget agreement sets overall discretionary spending for the current fiscal year at $1.012 trillion - about halfway between the Senate budget level of $1.058 trillion and the House budget level of $967 billion, and will come into effect after a current stop-gap bill ends on Jan. 15. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported earlier that U.S. retail sales rose 0.7% in November, beating market expectations for a 0.6% increase. Core retail sales, which are stripped of automobiles, rose 0.4%, above forecasts for a 0.2% increase. The data kept expectations alive that the Federal Reserve will soon decide to taper its USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases, possibly at Dec. 17-18 policy meeting. Monthly bond purchases have supported gold prices for over a year. Elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless claims assistance last week rose to a two-month high of 368,000, far surpassing expectations for an increase to 320,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 300,000. Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for March delivery was up 0.11% at USD19.475 a troy ounce, while copper for March delivery was down 0.04% and trading at USD3.292 a pound. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.02% at 80.19. On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with data on producer price inflation.

Source