By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia, ending the week close to a two-and-a-half-month high. The dollar slid to a one-week low and the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell close to a two-week low on the back of positive economic data from the U.S.
Gold futures were up 0.28% to $1,820.85, hurtling past the $1,800 mark, by 11:56 PM ET (3:56 AM GMT).
Data released by the U.S. on Thursday said that 498,000 initial jobless claims were filed over the past week, the lowest number since mid-March 2020 when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.
Investors now await the U.S. monthly jobs report for April, including non-farm payrolls, due later in the day.
On the central bank front, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said on Thursday that the U.S. economy is recovering but more improvements are needed before the Federal Reserve starts to slow down monetary support.
Across the Atlantic in the U.K., the Bank of England kept its interest rate steady at 0.10% as it handed down its May policy decision on Thursday.
In Asia, Japan will likely extend its current state of emergency that covers Tokyo until the end of May, while also extending it to cover two more prefectures, according to economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura.
In other precious metals, palladium and silver inched down 0.1% while platinum was steady at $1,252.41.