Gold prices turned higher at the settlement of trading on Wednesday, with the decline in US Treasury bond yields and the weakness of the dollar, following the release of economic data and the follow-up to the developments of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Data from “Moody’s” and “ADB” showed that the US private sector lost 301 thousand jobs in the month of January, which was contrary to analysts’ expectations, which were indicating an addition of 200 thousand jobs.
These data pressured Treasury yields today, as the yield on 10-year bonds fell to 1.75%, and the yield on 30-year bonds fell to 2.07%, which weighed on the dollar’s moves further and supported the rise of gold.
Geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe boosted the yellow metal’s allure, after US officials announced that the United States would send about 3,000 troops to Poland and Romania to join NATO forces in Eastern Europe to counter what Washington described as the Russian threat to invade Ukraine.
Gold prices fell earlier today due to the statements issued by the Federal Reserve members about the possibility of raising the interest rate during next March, and tightening monetary policy at a faster pace than expected this year.
Investors are awaiting tomorrow’s European Central Bank and BoE meetings, with the aim of getting signals on the pace of monetary tightening in the face of accelerating inflation.
Gold futures for April delivery witnessed an increase of 0.5%, or $8.80, to settle at $1810.30 an ounce.
While the dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six major currencies, fell by 0.5% at 95.941 points at 9:35 pm Mecca time.
