Gold continued to sell off heavily on Thursday afternoon while investors grappled with the more hawkish tone taken by the US Federal Reserve over normalising monetary policy.
The spot gold price was last at $1,180.20/1,181 per ounce, down $24.40 on the previous session’s close and having traded close to its lowest in two months at $1,176.90 earlier in the day.
Similarly, silver fell through support at $16 to hit an intraday low of $15.82 per ounce though it has since recovered to $16.02/16.07, down 53 cents.
In the PGMs, platinum hit an intraday low of $1,130 before settling at $1,131/1,136 per ounce, down $18, while palladium was last $6 lower at $772/777.
Gold slipped on the Fed’s assertion that the US economic slowdown might be due to temporary factors that could dissipate and even reverse later in the year. This in turn would clear the path for an interest-rate increase, several analysts noted.
But for now gold remains one of few commodities not benefitting from a dollar that earlier hit its lowest in two months against the euro at 1.1250 and 94.39 against the basket of currencies, also a two-month low.
The greenback clawed back some ground – it was last at 1.1160 – after the release of better-than-expected US data earlier in the session. US unemployment claims came in at 262,000 – the lowest level since 2000 and below the forecast 297,000.
In eurozone data earlier in the session, the core CPI flash estimate year-over-year met forecasts of 0.6 percent but the overall unemployment rate for March came in at a higher-than-expected 11.3 percent.
The Germany unemployment change for March was 8,000, missing the forecast 14,000, while the Italian monthly unemployment rate increased to 13 percent, above the predicted 12.6 percent.
(Additional reporting by Dalton Barker, editing by Mark Shaw)
The post Gold endures heavy sell-off, price close to 2-mth low appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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