Gold prices stood above new 9-month lows at $ 1690 an ounce, losing 2% for the week after comments by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell showed acceptance of a sharp rise in long-term interest rates.
Meanwhile, gold erased all of the 22.8% gains it had made since the outbreak of the pandemic, losing $360 an ounce from its all-time high of $ 2,050 in August.
Today, Bloomberg quoted a Dutch portfolio manager who sold his fund’s gold exposure in late November, after the Pfizer vaccine was announced, saying 'Although inflation has become a topic, gold is struggling'.
He added that the recent bullish move in U.S. yields was mainly driven by higher real returns and not really by break-even inflation, which is not helping gold prices.
The new US jobs data came in much stronger than analysts' expectations of the government's non-farm payroll estimates.
Data showed that the United States' trade deficit in goods and services rose 1.9% in January, swelling about $1 billion from the $69 billion gap in November.
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