Barrick Gold Corp, the world’s largest gold miner, said on Thursday it had brought back a former executive to advance a scaled-back development plan for its suspended Pascua-Lama project that will first focus on Argentina.
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Gold touched its lowest level since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union back in June as it just managed to keep its head above the US$1,300 mark on Wednesday. The dollar rose against the euro on Tuesday after USA consumer confidence rose to an 11-month high in August, indicating that United States economy is progressing well.
“Now we are waiting for the next big thing, which is payrolls (U.S.jobs data) on Friday”, he added, saying the first batch of Q3 GDP data at the end of October would be key.
“Even though it’s falling because of what happened during Yellen’s speech just last week, as well as the increased probability for the rate hike, all in all, safe-haven demand for gold should persist”, Barnabas Gan, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
The dollar index slipped to 95.664, though it is still above its low so far this week of 95.479, with its fate seen hinging on the looming jobs data.
GBP/USD is supported in the range of 1.3018 now trading at 1.3075 levels. It touched a fresh eight-week low of $1,043.20 Wednesday.
“A good jobs number could generate enough concern over a near-term rate rise to bolster the dollar and undercut gold, ” HSBC analyst James Steel said in a note.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 101.1 this month, an 11-month high.
The dollar was on the back foot on Friday.
The greenback rose 0.4 percent to 103.62 yen, close to the five-week high of 104 yen hit on Thursday. It has made session high at 1.3102 and lows at 1.3060 levels.
Gold’s rally this year has been eroded by prospects for higher USA borrowing costs, damping demand for non-interest bearing bullion while buoying the dollar. The data supported expectations that the Fed could raise rates this year after top Fed officials have said recently that such a move was possible.
His comments came after Fed Chair Janet Yellen painted a rosy picture of the USA economy at an economic symposium on Friday and said the case for a rate hike was strengthening.
In an interview on Tuesday, Fischer added that the US job market is almost at full strength, and said the pace of interest rate increases by the Fed will depend on how well the economy is doing.
According to Dundee Economics chief economist Martin Murenbeeld, a more hawkish attitude at Federal Reserve meetings may actually be a good thing for gold. It has found solid chart support around $0.7530 but a break there could see it touch $0.7450, a level last visited on July 27. Some doubts as to whether the USA central bank will be able to move next month helped European shares gain.
Apple dragged down US technology stocks after European Union antitrust regulators ordered the iPhone maker to pay about $14.5 billion in back taxes to the Irish government.
Spot silver rose 0.6 per cent to $18.95 an ounce.
Gold headed for a second weekly decline ahead of a key USA payrolls report that’s expected to give investors direction on the Federal Reserve’s tightening path. They fell 1.27 percent to 943.23 tons on Wednesday and were down 1.6 percent for the month. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR were last at 1.565 percent, roughly unchanged from late Monday.
This is largely because more positive economic data would likely add fuel to expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in the coming months.
The greenback was flat against a basket of major currencies at 95.72, having fallen 0.4 percent on Thursday, its worst perforamance in two weeks, after a surprise contraction in US manufacturing that cast some doubts on the strength of USA economic growth.
Spot gold was down 0.3 percent at $1,318.77 an ounce at 1400 GMT, while US gold futures for December delivery were down $6.10 an ounce at $1,321.10.
Oil prices fell for a second straight day on the dollar’s strength and worries about crude oversupply.
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Brent crude futures settled down 89 cents, or 1.8 percent, at $48.37 per barrel. USA crude settled down 63 cents, or 1.34 percent, at $46.35 per barrel.
