By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia, staying near a nine-month low and headed for a third consecutive weekly decline. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell disappointed investors with his views on the Treasury yields pushing both the dollar and bond yields up.
Gold futures were down 0.63% at $1,690 by 11:24 PM ET (4:24 AM GMT), falling below the $1,700 mark. The yellow metal dropped to its lowest since Jun. 8, 2020, and is down 2.3% for the week so far.
The U.S. 10-year yield topped 1.5%, while the dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched up on Friday.
Powell repeated his pledge to keep credit loose in a speech to the Wall Street Journal jobs summit on Thursday and added that although the rise in yields was “notable”, he did not consider it a “disorderly” move.
On the data front, 745,000 U.S. initial jobless were filed over the past week, lower than the 750,000 claims in forecasts prepared by Investing.com but up from the 736,000 claims filed during the previous week. February’s U.S. employment report, including non-farm payrolls, is due later in the day.
Meanwhile, the World Gold Council said that the amount of gold held by exchange-traded funds fell by 84.7 tons worth $4.6 billion in February, and CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) decreased margins for COMEX 100 Gold Futures contracts by 9.1%.
In other precious metals, silver rose 0.2% but was down 5% for the week so far, its worst level since late-November 2020. Palladium climbed 0.2%, while platinum shed 1.2%.