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Gold prices on Wednesday edged lower from last session’s six-month peak on short-term profit taking as the market sought fresh drivers, and a drop in Treasury yields and the dollar capped losses.
Spot gold fell 0.7% to $1,801.75 per ounce by 10:27 a.m. ET (1527 GMT), having hit its highest since the end of June on Tuesday. U.S. gold futures were down to $1,812.00.
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“You’re seeing a corrective pullback, some profit taking from the shorter-term futures traders. It’s mostly technical-trading with the lack of fresh fundamental news in this holiday week,” Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals, said.
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The dollar index hovered near its lows for the session, while benchmark 10-year yields edged lower from their highest levels in more than a month, capping bullion’s losses.
Gold has risen around $200 from a more than two-year low, hit in September, on expectations that the U.S. central bank would slow its pace of interest rate hikes, increasing the appeal of the non-yielding asset.
“I see aggressive hawkish monetary policy of the Federal Reserve being mostly factored into prices. You’re starting to see inflation back down a little,” Wyckoff added, highlighting that China opening up further in 2023 could also help demand.
China on Monday scrapped its COVID-19 quarantine rule for inbound travelers even as hospitals and funeral homes were under intense pressure from surging COVID-19 cases. Its civil aviation authority said it would restore pre-pandemic flight procedures by the summer-autumn of 2023.
Contracts to buy U.S. previously-owned homes fell far more than expected in November, largely due to the Fed’s interest rate hikes to curb inflation.
Traders await Thursday’s initial jobless claims.
In other precious metals, spot silver dropped 1.5% to $23.68 while platinum was down 0.7% to $1,013.00.
Palladium slipped 1.9% to $1,794.75, dropping to $1,774 earlier in the session. (Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis)
