By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Tuesday morning in Asia but were near nine-month lows as the dollar strengthened and U.S. Treasury yields capped the yellow metal’s gains.
Gold futures were up 0.52% at $1,686.75 by 11:29 PM ET (4:29 AM GMT), after hitting their lowest level since Jun. 5, 2020, on Monday. The dollar inched up on Tuesday.
U.S. ten-year Treasury yields continued their upward trend, increasing the opportunity cost of holding bullion.
The U.S. House of Representatives hopes to take up the bill for a $1.9 trillion stimulus package “Wednesday morning at the latest,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday. Once passed by the House of Representatives, the bill will make its way to Biden to be signed into law.
The Senate passed the bill for the package, proposed by President Joe Biden earlier in the year, on Saturday following an overnight vote.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen added on Monday that the package would provide enough resources to fuel a “very strong” U.S. economic recovery, adding that “there are tools” to deal with inflation.
On the central bank front, the European Central Bank (ECB) blamed large bond redemptions for failing to increase the pace of its emergency purchases during the previous week, missing market expectations and adding doubt about its commitment to supporting a debt-laden economy still recovering from COVID-19. ECB will hand down its monetary policy on Thursday.
Across the Atlantic, the Federal Reserve will extend an emergency liquidity facility to help lenders extend relief to small businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program to Jun. 30. The Fed will meet for its own two-day monetary policy meeting on Mar. 16.
In other precious metals, silver inched up 0.1%, palladium was up 0.5% and platinum inched up 0.1%.