Gold prices held on to overnight gains in North American trade on Thursday, after a pair of USA economic reports did little to alter expectations that Federal Reserve interest rates would stay lower for longer.
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NY gold for December delivery added 0.7% to US$1358 an ounce.
AUD/USD is supported around 0.7652 levels and now trading at 0.7688 levels.
St Louis Fed President James Bullard on Wednesday said that the central bank should be patient in raising interest rates with economic growth low. As for the reference to diminished near-term risks in the statement, the minutes contained few clues about how much further those risks need to fall to validate a rate hike. Part of the latest bounce came after Australian employment added 26,200 jobs in July, versus forecasts of 11,000, while the jobless rate unexpectedly dipped to 5.7 percent.
On Thursday, the dollar also fell against most higher-yielding, but riskier, emerging market units.
S&P 500 e-minis were down 2.25 points, or 0.1 percent, with 129,629 contracts traded at 8:32 a.m. ET (1232 GMT).
Energy stocks provided the biggest sector boost.
In the afternoon, the USA unit climbed as high as around ¥100.30 on a media report that former Cabinet adviser Etsuro Honda, now ambassador to Switzerland, has forecast additional monetary easing by the BOJ, traders said. New York Fed President William Dudley and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart have also in recent days made the case that the economy is in good shape and that the Fed should soon restart an expected run of gradual rate hikes that it began last December but shelved amid financial market turmoil and fears of the effects of a slowdown in China and Europe.
The yield on two-year Treasury notes, which are sensitive to traders’ views on Fed policy, was down almost 3 basis points at 0.710 percent.
Elsewhere in the world of precious metals, platinum and silver both recorded gains after hitting three-week lows yesterday.
In the US, the yield on 10-Year Treasury notes declined 0.022 percentage points to 1.536% as prices rose 7/32 to 99 22/32.
Gold fell for the first time in five sessions early on Friday as hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve officials renewed bets on a US rate hike this year. The session high of $51.05 was its highest since June 23.
The minutes from July’s Federal Open Market Committee, released on Wednesday, showed members of the rate-setting group were generally upbeat about the US economic outlook but showed a bias against raising interest rates soon. US light crude oil was up about 3 percent at $48.21.
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US gold settled up 0.6 percent at $1,357.20 per ounce.
