By Anushree Ashish Mukherjee
(Reuters) – Gold prices pared gains on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields edged higher, although mounting bets of U.S. interest rate cuts in September and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East underpinned bullion.
Spot gold was flat at $2,388.16 per ounce, as of 2:12 p.m. ET (1812 GMT), after rising as much as 0.7% earlier in the session.
U.S. gold futures settled mostly unchanged at $2,432.40.
The U.S. dollar rose 0.2% against its rivals, while benchmark 10-year Treasury yields also rose, putting pressure on bullion. [USD/][US/]
“I do think a correction is most likely if economic data shows that the recession fears are justified… gold will probably hit a new all time high in the coming months,” said Everett Millman, chief market analyst with Gainesville Coins.
Last week’s soft jobs report has led traders to expect nearly 105 basis points of rate cuts by year-end, with a 100% chance of a September rate cut, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
On Tuesday, the leader of Hezbollah pledged a “strong and effective” response to the killing of its military commander by Israel last week, no matter the consequences.
Bullion is considered a hedge against geopolitical and economic uncertainties and tends to thrive in a low interest rate environment.
“Jobless claims on Thursday is something markets will be looking for confirmation of slowing economic numbers, particularly employment,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.
Meanwhile, China’s central bank held back on buying gold for its reserves for a third straight month in July, official data showed on Wednesday.
“There has been some improvement in the appetite for gold in the West, but really China does lead the way in this regard and if they’re not buying as much, then that’s going to have a bigger impact on the aggregate global gold demand,” Millman added.
Spot silver fell 1.5% to $26.64 per ounce.
Platinum rose 0.6% to $917.38 and palladium was up 1.1% to $884.00.
(Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee and Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona, Maju Samuel and Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
