Investing.com -- Gold futures stabilized on Tuesday, one day after suffering their worst one-day decline in two months, as investors reacted to relatively flat China inflation data and an unexpected rise in U.S. job openings in a pair of closely watched reports.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for June delivery wavered between $1,258.00 and $1,269.45 an ounce, before settling at $1,261.75, down $4.85 or 0.38% on the session. At session-lows, gold touched down to its lowest level in nearly two weeks. Gold has responded to a six-day winning streak, bridging April and May, with a mild losing skid, where the precious metal has closed lower in five of the last six sessions. Despite the recent downturn, gold is still up by more than 17% since the start of the year and is on pace for one of its strongest first halves in more than a decade.
Gold likely gained support at $1,063.20, the low from January 4 and was met with resistance at $1,322.10, the high from August 8, 2014.
In overnight, Asian trading, China's National Statistics Bureau said its Consumer Price Index for April rose 2.3% on an annual basis, slightly lower than consensus estimates of 2.4% and in line with March's reading. On a monthly basis, consumer inflation in China ticked down mildly by 0.2%. The overall index received a boost from a surge in food prices, which rose 7.4% over the last year amid continual increases in pork prices. Over the last 12 months, the price of pork in China surged by 33.5%, building on gains of 28.4% a month earlier.
At the same time, the Producer Price Index (PPI) decreased by 3.8% on an annual basis in April, but at a lower rate than in March when it fell sharply by 4.3%. Still, producer prices in China have fallen on a yearly basis for each of the last 50 months. For the month, the PPI increased modestly by 0.7%.
China is the world's largest producer of gold and the second-largest consumer of the yellow metal behind India.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday that job openings in March rose by 149,000 on a seasonally-adjusted basis, lifting the job opening rate by 0.1% to 3.9%. Hiring rates, though, fell slightly by 0.1% to 3.7%, providing indications that employers experienced difficulty finding qualified workers. The report came in the wake of a relatively soft monthly employment report last week, which showed that nonfarm payrolls rose in April by the lowest level in seven months. Separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said Tuesday that its GDPNow Forecast model now sees an increase of 2.2% in second quarter GDP, up from estimates of 1.7% on May 4.
The Federal Reserve has continually reiterated that it is taking a data-driven approach to the timing of its first interest rate hike in 2016. Any rate hikes by the Fed this year are viewed as bearish for gold, which struggles to compete with high-yield bearing assets in rising rate environments.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, jumped more than 0.15% to an intraday high of 94.33, before falling back to 94.19 in U.S. afternoon trading. While the index is on pace for its sixth straight winning session, it is still down approximately 6% since early-December.
Dollar-denominated commodities such as gold become more expensive for foreign purchasers when the dollar appreciates.
Silver for July delivery fell 0.009 or 0.05% to $17.080 an ounce.
Copper for July delivery lost 0.015 or 0.74% to $2.091 a pound.