Gold price retreats as dollar rally dims precious metals appeal

Spot gold fell 1.0% to $1,834.30 per ounce by noon EDT, erasing its gains from the previous session. US gold futures were also down 1.0% to $1,833.90 per ounce in New York.

Chipping away gold’s value was the US dollar, which climbed to fresh 20-year highs Thursday, reducing the safe-haven metal’s appeal for other currency holders.

“Dollar is rallying as things potentially look negative in the US, which is hurting gold. Also, the market is realizing the likelihood of seeing pretty aggressive interest rate increases,” Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities, told Reuters.

“However, gold is holding relatively better when compared to the industrial precious metals, the demand for which could be hurt in a recession environment,” Melek added.

Declines in gold were, however, capped by a slide in the benchmark 10-year Treasury yields, which hit the lowest level in two weeks.

Elsewhere, spot silver fell 3.0% to $20.91 per ounce, its lowest since July 2020. Palladium dropped 6.3% to $1,904.32 per ounce, having earlier slid as much as 8.2% to its lowest since January.

“Silver is falling faster than gold, that’s a bearish sign for the whole complex. With the ongoing lockdowns in China, industrial metals are struggling and US institutional investor who’s bailing out a gold ETF by extension bails out of silver as well,” independent analyst Ross Norman said.