Gold fell more than 1 percent on Friday after US March payrolls data beat expectations, allaying some fears about the US economy and stoking speculation about the timing of likely interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve this year. US employers added 215,000 jobs in March, the payrolls report showed, against expectations for 205,000. US interest rate futures suggested traders are now betting the Fed will next raise rates as soon as November, versus December ahead of the report.
Spot gold was down 1 percent at $1,220.07 an ounce by 2:49 pm EDT (1849 GMT), having earlier touched a low of $1,208.45, while US gold futures for June delivery settled down $12.1 an ounce at $1223.50. The metal saw its biggest quarterly rise in nearly 30 years in the three months to March, rallying more than 16 percent as expectations faded that the Fed would move to normalise interest rates after their first increase in nearly a decade in December.
Gold had risen as much as 2 percent earlier this week after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the US central bank should proceed only cautiously with further interest rate increases. The metal slid 3 percent last week after hawkish comments from several Fed officials. The metal is sensitive to moves in US rates, as a rise would lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar.
Physical gold demand in the major Asian markets of China and India has been soft this week due to rising prices, traders said. India's gold demand in the March quarter is set to drop by about two-thirds from a year ago to its lowest in seven years. Silver was down 2.4 percent at $15.04 an ounce, while platinum was down 1.9 percent at $954.50 an ounce and palladium was down 0.4 percent at $559.5 an ounce.
Comments
Comments are closed.