Gold Remains Sensitive to U.S. dollar strengthening. After falling to a nearly two-week low on Tuesday gold prices turned higher after unease over North Korea, reversing the downward move after the jobs data pushed the dollar away of its 13-mnt low. While the U.S. dollar remains a headwind for gold, gold is seeing less pressure from bond markets. U.S. 10-year bond yields remain relatively low last trading at 2.28%. Gold as a non-yield asset is sensitive to higher interest rates.
U.S. Dollar Holds Gains. The dollar pared gains slightly after Trump’s North Korea comments, still supported by the job market data which underscored the view that the Federal Reserve has ammunition to continue on its tighter monetary policy path. A strong jobs report last Friday gave the dollar index its strongest daily performance this year. The job data were the latest metric to highlight tightening labor market conditions in the U.S. and to that extent that’s a dollar-positive data.
Oil prices settled lower after OPEC meeting. After the news on increasing exports from key OPEC producers and lower crude shipments from Saudi Arabia oil traded much lower. After U.S. inventories fell more than expected last week crude briefly pared losses in late trading. U.S. crude fell 0.55 percent to $49.12 per barrel and Brent was last at $52.03, down 0.65 percent on the day.
