By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia, rallying from its lowest level in more than two months, but was still on course to post its worst week in around two months thanks to a strengthening dollar.
Gold futures were up 0.25% at $1,795.75 by 10:41 M ET (3:41 AM GMT), falling below the $1,800 mark. The dollar was up on Friday, after reaching a more than two-month peak during the previous session.
Longer-term U.S. Treasury yields also saw gains, with progress made towards the passage of further U.S. stimulus measures. Democrat lawmakers in the Senate are preparing for a massive "vote-a-rama" session to pass President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package.
Thursday’s positive U.S. employment data also helped boost investor sentiment. The data said that 779,000 initial jobless claims were filed over the past week, fewer than the 830,000 claims predicted in forecasts prepared by Investing.com and the 812,000 claims reported during the previous week. Further jobs data, including non-farm payrolls, will be released later in the day.
On the central bank front, the Bank of England kept its February interest rate unchanged at 0.10% as it handed down its policy decision on Thursday.