Spot gold was down 0.3% at $1,146 an ounce at 9.30am GMT, while USA gold futures for August delivery were down $2.70/oz at $1,144.70.
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“So when investors are confident, they sell gold; when they’re anxious, they don’t buy it. A strong United States dollar with all this talk of interest-rate hikes likely contributing to gold’s seeming change of goal of late with the three-month downtrend intact”.
Bullion took a deeper hit this week after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congress the US central bank is on track to lift interest rates this year if the US economy expands as expected, sending the dollar to a seven-week high versus a basket of currencies on Thursday.
Meanwhile, progress toward completing a bailout deal for Greece robbed gold of haven demand.
Silver was last down two cents at $14.95/15.00 per ounce and platinum and palladium also continue to struggle, with platinum in particular looking increasingly fragile just above $1,000.
“Gold is now trading below the long-term basing uptrend made up of the November and March lows, with further downside in prospect if the dollar gains further, or Treasury yields rise”.
Assets in the SPDR Gold Trust fell 1.6 percent to 696.25 metric tons on Friday, the lowest since September 2008.
“Gold is finding a lot of headwinds from multiple sources: we have seen the Greek risk fade and the focus return to the U.S. and Janet Yellen”, Saxo Bank Senior Manager Ole Hansen said. On Wednesday, the yellow metal dipped as low as $1,140.80, the lowest since early November.
“The weakness we are seeing is related to the strength of the USA dollar… and the bearish momentum is sustained by psychological levels being breached, like the $1,000 mark in platinum”, said Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research at Julius Baer.
The price drop failed to spur demand in top consumers in Asia with domestic prices in No. 2 market India remaining at a discount to global spot. Global holdings in exchange-traded products backed by gold are near the smallest since 2009.
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Platinum for October delivery was recently down 0.8% at $1,013.20 a troy ounce. The stock traded at a volume of 1.75 million shares at a price loss of -3.23%.
