Gold prices jump over 2% on retreating US treasury yields, dollar

By K. Sathya Narayanan

(Reuters) - Gold surged over 2% on Tuesday, staging a strong recovery from a nine-month low hit the previous session, powered by a retreat in U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar.

Spot gold rose 2.1% to $1,716.11 per ounce by 10:15 am ET (1515 GMT), having slipped to its lowest since June 5 at $1,676.10 on Monday.

U.S. gold futures climbed 2.2% to $1,715.40.

"I don't know if this is the end to the upside trend in yields, but it's a start. Gold and silver traders have been waiting for this and are jumping back into this market, also given how oversold and low it got," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields backed away from a more than one-year high hit last week, while the dollar fell. [USD/]

While gold is considered a hedge against potential inflation from massive economic stimulus measures, rising bond yields have challenged that status.

Gold may extend gains near term, but "fundamentally, the pendulum swings in favour of bears especially when factoring in how global sentiment is improving on vaccine rollouts and COVID-19 cases are falling globally", said Lukman Otunuga, senior research analyst at FXTM.

Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, fell to their lowest since April 2020 on Monday.

"The ETF flows are contributing to a greater impact on prices on the way down than on the way up. We forecast gold prices to reach $1,750/oz (in 2021), but given gold's recent volatility, this forecast has quite low conviction," Societe Generale said in a note.

Investors await the U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day meeting next week, even as Chair Jerome Powell has said that the Fed's current easy policy stance remains appropriate.

Silver rose 3.4% to $25.95 per ounce. Palladium fell 1% to $2,293.11, while platinum gained 3.3% to $1,173.35.

 

(Reporting by K. Sathya Narayanan and Shreyansi Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Macfie)