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Gold futures climbed Wednesday to post back-to-back gains, with prices buoyed by weakness in the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury yields but settling below the key $1,800-an-ounce level for a third straight trading session.
Price action
-
February gold
GC00,
-0.07%
GCG23,
-0.07%
added $15.60, or 0.9%, to settle at $1,798 per ounce on Comex after posting a modest rise Tuesday. -
Silver for March delivery
SI00,
-0.16%
SIH23,
-0.16%
added 59 cents, or 2.6%, to $22.922 per ounce. -
March palladium prices
PAH23,
-0.68%
climbed by $2.80, or nearly 0.2%, to $1,854.30 per ounce, while January platinum
PLF23,
+0.04%
rose $16.10, or 1.6%, to $1,011.50 per ounce, rebounding after settling Tuesday at a two-week low. -
Copper prices for March
HGH23,
-0.57%
climbed 4 cents, or 1.1%, to $3.8605 per pound.
Market drivers
“Traders and investors remain very jittery with the odd positive data point[s] mixed in with increasing concerns of a sustained global recession, particularly in the light of China’s sustained lockdown bound to hit activity in the world’s second largest economy,” said Rupert Rowling, market analyst at Kinesis Money.
China, meanwhile, has announced a series of measures to roll back some of anti-COVID-19 restrictions, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
For now, investors are “trying to assess where gold sits in the current environment,” Rowling said in a market update.
“A global recession with a subsequent flight to haven assets should benefit gold, as should a [Federal Reserve] forced to be less aggressive with its rate hikes to avoid tipping the U.S. economy into recession,” said Rowling.
Still, before the media blackout that precedes the Federal Reserve meeting next week, bank officials were “lining up to state that interest rates would need to reach at least 5% to calm persistently high inflation,” he said. “So next week’s meeting no longer looks like the formality it was starting to appear.”
Gold prices traded mostly below $1,800 Wednesday, though it did touch an intraday high of $1,800.50.
The U.S. dollar weakened against its currency rivals, with the ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
down 0.4% at 105.11. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
eased back by nearly 8 points to 3.4386%.
Weakness in the dollar tends to decrease the opportunity costs for investors considering dollar-priced gold as an option versus other perceived havens. Meanwhile, lower bond yields can raise the prospects for gold against government bonds.
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