By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Thursday morning in Asia, but a weakening dollar and U.S. bond yields retreating from a three-week high capped the yellow metal’s losses.
Gold futures inched down 0.09% to $1,868.60 by 11:38 PM ET (4:38 AM GMT) after climbing to a record over-five-month high on Wednesday. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched down on Thursday but remained near a 16-month high.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields recorded a modest climb on Thursday but retreated from a three-week high hit during the previous session. An auction of 20-year bonds also disappointed.
Investors remained concerned about central banks hiking interest rates faster than expected.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will only complete asset tapering in mid-2022, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said on Wednesday. However, the central bank will continue to monitor whether record-high levels of inflation will come down as he expects, Evans added.
Across the Atlantic, a jump in U.K. inflation in October raised expectations that the Bank of England will hike interest rates in December. The consumer price index grew a higher-than-expected 1.1% month-on-month and 4.2% year-on-year.
Elsewhere in Europe, the European Central Bank must be ready to rein in inflation in the eurozone if it proves more durable than forecast, according to board member Isabel Schnabel.
Meanwhile, holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust (P:GLD) rose about 0.1% to 976.87 tons on Wednesday.
In other precious metals, silver edged up 0.2% after the Silver Institute said in a report that global silver demand will rise to 1.029 billion ounces in 2021, its first time exceeding one billion ounces since 2015. Platinum and palladium rose 0.3%.