Gold retreats from weekly high following dollar surge

Shafaq News

Gold slid on Wednesday as investors booked profits after prices briefly hit a more than one-week high earlier in the session, while a stronger dollar weighed on sentiment across the precious metals complex ahead of key U.S. jobs data due this week.

Spot gold slipped 1.1% to $4,447.03 per ounce, as of 0547 GMT. It touched a record high of $4,549.71 last Monday.

U.S. gold futures for February delivery were 0.9% lower at $4,456.10.

Prices are not being influenced "that much from a fundamental perspective, there's a lot of speculation... price action has for the most part been skewed to the upside, but it's showing two-way volatility," Capital.com senior financial markets analyst Kyle Rodda said.

He added that the U.S. dollar was also playing a role in depressing prices.

The dollar held near a more than two-week high, making greenback-priced assets more expensive for other currency holders.

Investors expect at least two interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year, while they look to U.S. non-farm payroll data on Friday for more clues. The JOLTS survey and ADP private payrolls data on Wednesday may also set the market tone.

Fed Governor Stephen Miran, whose term ends later this month, said on Tuesday that aggressive U.S. rate cuts are needed to keep the economy moving forward.

Non-yielding assets tend to perform well in low-interest-rate environments and during periods of geopolitical or economic uncertainty.

On the geopolitical front, Caracas and Washington reached a deal to export up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude to the U.S., a move that would divert supplies from China following the U.S. kidnapping of former President Nicolás Maduro.

Elsewhere, spot silver lost 3.5% to $78.43 per ounce, down from an all-time high of $83.62 hit on December 29.

Spot platinum dropped 4.1% to $2,342.50 per ounce, receding from a record high $2,478.50 touched last Monday. It gained more than 3% earlier in the session.

Palladium traded 5.6% lower at $1,720.25 per ounce.

(Reuters)

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