Daily Times

Spot gold prices staged some recovery after falling to two-month low on Thursday amid a stronger US dollar and firmer treasury bond yields.

As of 1330 hours GMT, gold in the international market was available at $1,885.80 per ounce, shedding $0.20 (-0.01 percent). Out of the $0.20 per ounce decrease, -$12.65 was due to strengthening of the US dollar and +$12.45 was due to predominant buyers, according to Kitco Gold Index.

The price of 10 grams of 24-carat yellow metal in Pakistan, meanwhile, decreased to Rs112,500 after shedding Rs700. Gold price in the local market settled at Rs113,200 on Wednesday last.

Gold price fell to a two-month lows of $1,872 earlier in the day. The dollar index reached a five-year top of 103.28, and a further push above 103.82 would see it to levels not visited since late-2002. A stronger dollar makes greenback-priced gold less attractive for other currency holders.

On the other hand, benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields also firmed, as investors awaited greater clarity on the “restrictive” policy the Federal Reserve plans to pursue next week to combat inflation by curbing economic growth.

According to experts, escalating geopolitical risk and inflation should continue to underpin investment demand. They said while the yellow metal’s prices have remained extremely resilient against an aggressively hawkish Fed, as a protracted war in Ukraine simultaneously raised both geopolitical uncertainty and inflation risks and thereby fuelled demand for havens, we see few participants left with an appetite to buy gold.

From a technical perspective, with the greenback coming under renewed selling pressure after the disappointing first-quarter growth data, gold started to edge higher toward $1,900. The benchmark 10-year US T-bond yield, however, stays in positive territory, limiting gold’s upside for the time being.