Gold gains on pullback of US bond yields, war worries

Bengaluru — Gold prices rebounded on Tuesday as benchmark US Treasury yields pulled back, while investors awaited economic data for guidance on interest rates and monitored growing tensions in the Middle East.

Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,976.99 an ounce by 3.49am GMT, while US gold futures were steady at $1,988.10.

Benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield declined, after briefly rising above 5% on Monday and further threatening an economic slowdown on higher borrowing costs.

“The importance of geopolitics and gold is really highlighted very clearly by how strong gold has been despite stronger bond yields,” said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive. “Once markets digest geopolitics, yields would become more of a meaningful factor.”

Gold is seen as a safe investment during times of crisis and has surged about 9% in the past two weeks on war worries, hitting five-month highs on October 20.

Investors are keeping watch on the Middle East war as Israel’s military issued a statement suggesting that Israel has no intention of curbing its strikes on Gaza Strip and hinting it is prepared for a ground assault.

Markets also await global flash purchasing managers’ index (PMIs) numbers due later in the day, US third-quarter GDP figures on Thursday and the US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index on Friday to evaluate how it would affect the Federal Reserve’s monetary path.

For the data to have any kind of meaningful influence, it would have to be either a much better or a much worse outcome than expected, Spivak said.

Spot silver was up 0.7% to $23.15 an ounce, platinum fell 0.1% to $895.66 and palladium firmed 1.1% to $1,129.79.

Reuters