By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Monday morning in Asia, after sliding as much as 4.4% to a more than four-month low. Strong U.S. jobs data increased fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve would hike interest rates and begin asset tapering earlier than expected.
Gold futures fell 1.19% to $1,742.10 by 1:20 AM ET (5:20 AM GMT), with prices touching $1,684.37, the lowest since Mar. 31, earlier in the session.
Gold broke below its bull-market defining trendline for the first time since 2019, fueling significant stop-outs and melting the yellow metal’s prices, TD Securities analysts said in a note.
The latest U.S. jobs report, released on Friday, said non-farm payrolls rose by a better-than-expected 943,000, while the unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, in July. Investors now await further data, including the core consumer price index (CPI), on Wednesday.
In Asia, China also released data earlier in the day. The country’s CPI rose 1% year-on-year and 0.3% month-on-month, while the producer price index (PPI) rose 9% year-on-year, in July.
Meanwhile, prices eased in India, where the physical gold market flipped into a small premium during the previous week for the first time in a month. However, activity remained subdued in one of gold’s biggest hubs.
In other precious metals, silver fell 2.6% at $23.70, after sliding 7.5% to a more than eight-month low of $22.50 per ounce earlier in the session. Platinum fell 1.5% and palladium edged up 0.2%.