By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Wednesday morning in Asia but remained near a recent low as strong U.S. retail sales reading drove the dollar close to a 16-month high.

They were at $1,856.70 (11:48 ET) (4:48 GMT) and up 0.4%.  Although the inverse of gold moves, Wednesday’s trough saw the edging up to $1,856.70 (4:48 AM GMT).

On Tuesday, data showed the U.S. had a growth of 1.7%. That’s better than we expected. The growth rate was 1.7% higher than expected.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis president said Tuesday that the Fed must “tackle in a more conservative direction” to prepare for long-term high inflation. There are increasing chances that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sooner than planned due to persistently high levels of inflation.

The U.K.’s better-than-expected employment data by the Office for National Statistics has eased fears that the Bank of England would raise interest rates. In September, the rate fell to 4.3%.

“Now that today’s labor market data shows that hurdle has been cleared, we think the Bank of England has the green light for interest rate lift-off at their December meeting,” J.P. Morgan Asset Management global market strategist Ambrose Crofton told Reuters.

Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia said also that current data doesn’t support an interest rate Down Under. Australia saw its wage price index rise by 2.2% and 0.6% respectively during the third quarter.

Spot silver was up 0.6% in other precious metals while palladium and platinum were both higher 0.3%.