Gold hear near a 2-month on Friday, extending losses to a fifth session as the dollar strengthened on strong data and indications from the U.S. Federal Reserve it could raise interest rates sooner than expected.
Spot gold prices tumbled on Thursday, edged slightly up, adding 0.40 percent or 5.09 points to trade at $1,279.91 compared with an opening level of $1,277.36. Prices so far hit intraday high at $1,280.81 and low at $1,276.28.
Data on Thursday showed U.S. home re-sales raced to a 10-month high in July and the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week, on a clear sign of strength in the economy.
Gold`s appeal as a safe-haven has been recently hurt by solid data especially in the labor market. Investors fear data would prompt the Fed to soon raise interest rates.
Higher rates would hurt non-interest bearing assets such as gold.
In other markets:
- Spot Silver climbed 0.64% to trade at $19.54
- Spot Platinum gained 0.28% to $1,423.75
- Spot Palladium added 0.27% to trade at $882.10
Markets are eyeing the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming later on Friday. Fed’s Chief Janet Yellen’s speech will be closely watch to see whether policymakers debated interest rates should be raised earlier given a surprisingly strong job market recovery.
The U.S. dollar traded just below 11-month highs against a basket of major currencies, with the index last seen trading at 82.12 as of 09:34 GMT+3.