Gold News & Info

Source:Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold rose 0.2% to close near $1,850 on bargain-hunting after last Friday's blowout jobs report knocked it 2.8% lower for its first weekly loss since December.

The US added a shocking 517,000 new jobs in January, dropping the unemployment rate to 3.4%, the lowest in 53 years. The Fed has been struggling to cool the job market and the economy via steeply higher borrowing costs.

Before the blowout jobs report, most data indicated that the central bankers were accomplishing their goal, rising expectations that the Fed would bring the most aggressive rate-hike cycle in a generation to a close.

Now the markets are not so sure. The economy has certainly been slowing, with many analysts claiming that the US has already entered a recession. But the labor market, apparently, not so much.

Fed funds futures trading had been expecting the Fed to hike by another quarter-point in March and possibly be done. Now the market is betting on at least two more hikes by June, possibly three.

On Friday, the dollar jumped 1.2% on the prospect of higher interest rates. It extended that rise by another 0.7% today, capping gold's gains by making it pricier in other currencies.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields also rose on the shifting rate view, pushing back above 3.6%. Higher yields are a headwind for gold because they increase the opportunity cost for holding it instead of bonds as a safe-haven asset.

The other precious metals were lower, with silver sliding 0.8% while platinum dropped 0.6% and palladium shed 2.4%.

At the Comex close: April gold gained $2.90 to $1,879.50; March silver slid 17 cents to $22.24; April platinum lost $5.70 to $974.60; and March palladium declined by $39 to $1,579.40 an ounce.