- Gold near three-week low
- Silver, platinum set for 3rd straight weekly loss
- US non-farm payrolls for July due at 1230 GMT
By Swati Verma
Aug 4 (Reuters) – Gold prices looked set to post their worst week in six on Friday as investors braced for a closely watched U.S. jobs report after a string of solid economic data this week drove Treasury yields to nine-month highs.
Spot gold was little changed at $1,935.07 per ounce by 0412 GMT, while U.S. gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,970.30. Gold prices have declined more than 1% so far this week, having slipped to their lowest level since July 11 in the last session.
U.S. long-term Treasury yields climbed to their highest since November on Thursday after employment and other economic data pointed to easing inflation. Non-farm payrolls (NFP) data due at 1230 GMT will be the next focus for further clues about the U.S. economy’s strength.
“For gold to start making some forward progress we will likely need to see an adverse reaction of the dollar to the NFP figures,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
“But for the meantime, gold is trading tightly and without much spark, mostly because it’s losing out in terms of relative yield attractiveness.”
The Bank of England on Thursday warned that borrowing costs were likely to stay high for some time, while a European Central Bank board member made the case for keeping the ECB’s interest rates at their current high level for longer. Rising bond yields dampen the appeal of gold, which pays no interest.
On a technical basis, Kelvin Wong, senior market analyst, Asia Pacific, OANDA, sees key near-term support for gold at $1,925, a fall below which exposes the metal to its 200-day moving average at $1,895.
Spot silver fell 0.2% to $23.51 per ounce and platinum was flat at $914.17. Both metals were set for third consecutive weekly loss.
Palladium dropped 0.9% to $1,247.76.
