- Gold prices fell in early Asian trade on Thursday, giving up all-time highs hit earlier this week, as the dollar strengthened ahead of U.S. jobs data and a speech by the Federal Reserve chairman that could provide further clues on interest rate expectations.
- Spot gold was down 0.5% at $2,500.65 an ounce by 0243 GMT, trading below Tuesday's all-time high of $2,531.60. U.S. gold futures were down 0.4% at $2,537.10.
- The market has seen fluctuations of small gains and losses recently, indicating a phase of consolidation, said Ilya Spivak, global macroeconomist at TestLife.
- “From the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting, you get the sense that the Fed is ready to cut rates,” he added. “The Fed needs to start cutting rates now or it will be over-tightening its monetary policy and end up hurting the economy unnecessarily.”
- After touching its lowest level since late December on Wednesday, the dollar index rose 0.2% after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's July 30-31 meeting, which showed officials were strongly inclined to cut interest rates next month.
- The market is also awaiting the new unemployment claims data, due out later today.
- Among other precious metals, spot silver fell 0.9% to $29.37 an ounce, platinum fell 0.41% to $959.76 an ounce, and palladium fell 0.3% to $948.55 an ounce.
