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Gold faces first weekly decline in a month

August 20, 2022 00:00:00


Gold slipped to a three-week low on Friday and was en route for its first weekly drop in a month, pressured by a stronger dollar and rising U.S. bond yields, reports Reuters.

Spot gold fell for a fifth straight session, down 0.3 per cent at $1,753.84 per ounce as of 0940 GMT, which could be its longest losing streak since November 2021.

U.S. gold futures slipped 0.2 per cent to $1,767.00.

Dragged by the dollar's renewed ascent and a steady rise in benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields, prices of zero-yield, greenback-priced gold are down 2.7 per cent this week.

However, "gold has shown some resilience this past week at times and may be quick to capitalise if the dollar rally fades," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

Several U.S. Federal Reserve officials said on Thursday that the central bank needs to keep raising interest rates to bring high inflation under control.

Rising rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

Ahead of the next Fed meeting, traders will be heavily focused on the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium, jobs data and inflation, Erlam said. "Considering how the year has been so far, a lot can therefore change ahead of the September decision."

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he was currently leaning toward supporting a third straight 75-basis-point rate hike next month.

The market has been complacent in expecting the Fed to slow interest rate hikes and that they would begin easing in the first half of 2023, said Quantitative Commodity Research analyst Peter Fertig. But that is absurd, considering elevated inflation, he added.

Spot silver fell 1.5 per cent to $19.23 per ounce and has lost about 7.6 per cent this week, possibly its worst since September 2020.

Platinum dropped 0.9 per cent to $902.84 and palladium slipped 0.5 per cent to $2,144.85, both set for weekly drops.


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