Gold down 8th day in row as dollar, yields rally again before retreating

Investing.com - Gold can’t seem to put in a positive close these days, even when the dollar and Treasury yields are in retreat.

Gold’s most-active futures contract on New York’s Comex, December, settled down $6.70, or 0.4%, at $1,834.80 an ounce. The benchmark gold futures contract lost 3.1% last week for its biggest weekly decline since the end of January. This week, December gold was off 2.6% for the current week.

The spot price of gold, more closely watched by some traders than futures, settled at $1,821.20, down $1.78, or 0.1%, for the day. Spot gold fell 4% last week, the most since a near 6% plunge during the week to June 11, 2021. This week, it is on course for another 1.5% drop.

Rallying yields and the dollar — the twin nemesis to gold — have practically wiped most, if not all, of gold’s shine this year, leaving Comex futures barely in the positive for 2023 and the spot market in red territory.

Late on Wednesday, the Dollar Index was at 106.77, after hitting a 11-month high of 107.35 on Tuesday. The return on the 10-year Treasury note, which leads US bonds yields, was at 4.735, retreating from Monday’s 16-year high of 1,849.06.