Investing.com – Gold prices hit close to a three-week low on Friday as dollar strength continued to put pressure on the precious metal and risk appetite for equities remained in full swing.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, for December delivery lost $0.57, or about 0.04%, to $1.269.03 a troy ounce by 4:01AM ET (8:01GMT).
That was just off an intraday low of $1,266.28 touched earlier in the session, its lowest level since October 6.
The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose 0.20% at 94.74. That was close to a 3-month high of 94.98 reached on July 20.
Gold is sensitive to a stronger dollar as the gains in the greenback made the precious metal more expensive for holders of foreign currency.
The dollar found further support overnight after the U.S. House passed a budget resolution, paving the way for Congress to move on to “massive tax cuts” proposed by President Donald Trump.
The greenback found upside earlier on Thursday in its exchange with the euro as the single currency felt pressure from the European Central Bank’s decision to pare its bond purchases while extending its monetary stimulus program for a period of nine months.
ECB president Mario Draghi’s indicated that the central bank’s asset purchase program is “open ended”, leaving the door open to a prolonged period of monetary stimulus beyond September 2018. Draghi further assured market participants that the ECB would continue to reinvest principal payments from maturing bonds in the program well after the monetary authority stops expanding its balance sheet.
Traders were also wary of data out stateside later in Friday’s session.
The U.S. is to release at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT) Friday.
The report is expected to show growth slowing to an annual rate of 2.6% from 3.1%, with a decline in retail sales, industrial production, homebuilding and home sales blamed on Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Investors will also keep an eye on a revision to Michigan’s consumer sentiment index for October, set for release at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT).
Elsewhere in metals trading, dropped 0.27% at $16.776 a troy ounce.
fell 0.34% at $919.00 a troy ounce, while lost 0.77% to $970.67 a troy ounce as both metals hit one-week lows overnight.
slid 1.49% to $3.130 a pound after Chinese authorities reaffirmed that the country’s economy was on track to achieve the official growth target even as its housing market slows.
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Source: Investing.com
