PT Solid Gold Berjangka | Gold Heads for Weekly Gain as Soft Jobs Print Boosts Fed Hopes
Solid Gold Berjangka | Gold was on track for a weekly gain as soft US economic data fueled optimism the Federal Reserve’s most-aggressive hiking campaign in decades is at an end.
Continuing applications for US unemployment benefits rose to the highest in almost two years during the week that ended Nov. 4, data released Thursday showed. Treasury yields dropped while gold gained as much as 1.4%, the most on an intraday basis in four weeks, as traders latched on to signals that the labor market may finally be starting to weaken.
While the figures could prompt a more dovish stance from Fed officials, any material easing of monetary policy isn’t likely to happen soon. Swaps traders are pricing about a 35% chance of at least one rate cut by March. Higher rates are typically negative for non-yielding gold.
Bullion is up more than 2% this week after falling more than 3% over the prior fortnight as the precious metal’s war-risk premium eased, with the Israel-Hamas conflict now looking relatively contained to the region.
“Any reoccurrence of risk-off flows can still lead to similar jumps higher, but for the trend to turn positive, monetary policy must begin to loosen,” RBC Capital Markets LLC strategist Christopher Louney said in a note. “Between now and then, there will be bumps along the way in any case, and thus bumps will continue to buffet gold prices.”
Spot gold was 0.1% higher at $1,982.33 an ounce as of 8:19 a.m. in Singapore. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed. Silver rose, palladium was steady and platinum edged lower.
Source : Bloomberg,PT SGB, Solid Gold Berjangka, Solid Group