Gold Down, but Caps Losses as U.S. Bond Yields Ease

© Reuters.

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was down on Monday morning in Asia, recouping some losses after a steep sell-off during the previous session as U.S. bond yields eased.

Gold futures inched down 0.03% to $1,767.75 by 11:49 PM ET (3:49 AM GMT), clawing back losses after sliding 1.6% on Friday.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields eased after rising to a high of 1.5904% on Monday. Meanwhile, the dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, edged up on Monday. However, it slipped 0.6% from the previous week’s 20212 highs, capping the yellow metal’s losses.

Although investors are betting that inflation could mean earlier-than-expected interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve, other central banks might be less aggressive over the tightening cycle. However, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Sunday that the central bank is prepping an interest rate hike as inflation risks mount.

In another indicator of sentiment, SPDR Gold Trust (P:GLD) GLD (NYSE:GLD) said its holdings fell 0.3% to 980.1 tons on Friday from 982.72 tons the day before.

Meanwhile, data from China released earlier in the day showed that GDP grew a smaller-than-expected 0.2% quarter-on-quarter and 4.9% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021. The data also showed that industrial production grew 3.1% year-on-year, retail sales grew 4.4% year-on-year in September and the unemployment rate was at 4.9%.

In other precious metals, silver edged up 0.2%. Platinum eased 0.4% to $1,050.80 and palladium fell 0.7%.