Investing.com - Gold prices continued to fall on Tuesday as the lack of progress on U.S. tax reform drags on markets and higher bond yields hit a nine-year high.
Comex gold futures lost around $6.17, or 0.48%, to $1,272.73 a troy ounce by 8:51AM ET (1:51 PM GMT), after touching its lowest since Nov. 6 at $1,270.59 earlier.
The Senate is expected to work on the tax reform bill this week, with a final vote set for Thanksgiving next week. Analysts however have expressed doubt at the timeline. News that corporate tax cuts wouldn’t go into effect until 2019 have left investors on edge.
Higher U.S. Treasury bond yields also weighed on gold prices. U.S. Treasury two-year note yields hit a nine-year high on Monday as investors expect an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in December. Higher bond yields reduce the appeal of non-yielding assets like bullion.
Among other precious metals, silver futures decreased 0.59%, to $16.946 a troy ounce, platinum fell 0.46% to $931.30, while palladium was down 0.44% to $985.38 an ounce.
Meanwhile, copper futures slipped 0.40%, to $3.104 a pound after data showed that China's economy slowed last month after a government crackdown on debt risks and factory pollution led to industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail sales missing expectations.
Industrial output rose 6.2% year-on-year in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, missing analysts' estimates of a 6.3% gain and lagging a 6.6% increase in September.
Fixed-asset investment growth also slowed to 7.3% in the January-October period, from 7.5% in the first nine months. Analysts had expected an increase of 7.4%.