By Seher Dareen
(Reuters) – Gold prices fell on Monday due to an uptick in the dollar and bond yields, while investors looked ahead to more U.S. economic data amid expectations of a slower pace of rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Spot gold fell 0.7% to $1,913.44 per ounce by 10:16 a.m. ET (1516 GMT). It climbed to its highest since April 2022 on Friday.
U.S. gold futures was down 0.7% to $1,914.60.
“Bond yields ticked up slightly and the dollar has been going up here this morning – that’s just putting some pressure here on gold,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
“A lot of people will start hopping in when we see some support around $1,950 to see the inevitable move towards $2,000.”
The dollar index was up 0.2%, making dollar-priced gold less attractive for buyers holding other currencies, while benchmark yields were at their session-highs. [USD/]
Investors will be scanning the U.S. fourth quarter GDP report on Thursday and U.S. personal spending data on Friday, before the U.S. central bank policy meeting on Jan. 31-Feb. 1.
Traders are pricing in a 98% chance that the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points (bps) next month, after slowing its pace to 50 bps last month, following four straight 75-bp hikes.
Zero-yield bullion tends to do well in a lower interest rate environment.
U.S. Fed Governor Christopher Waller, one of the leading inflation hawks and an advocate last year of aggressive rate increases, supported scaling back to quarter-point rate on Friday.
Meanwhile, India is expected to slash the import duty on gold, which could lift retail sales by making the metal cheaper ahead of peak demand season. [GOL/AS]
Elsewhere, spot silver dipped 4.6% to $22.8362 per ounce, platinum was down 0.6% to $1,037.00, while palladium fell 0.3% to $1,722.25.
Growth concerns are weighing on the white metals, which have a higher industrial use than gold, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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