Gold lifts above 19-month low on stronger yuan

US gold futures were up 0.8% at $1,194.10 an ounce.

“Value-buying in this oversold territory is highly likely to underpin gold prices,” Religare Securities analyst Sugandha Sachdeva said.

Lower prices were sparking a revival in demand for physical gold in Asia, but downward pressure from speculators remained strong.

Bets on lower prices by hedge funds and money managers on the Comex exchange continue to build and outweigh bets on higher prices by 77,273 lots, the largest quantity recorded to date.

Holdings of gold backed exchange-traded funds, meanwhile, have fallen by 4.1-million ounces, or 7%, since late May as investors exited positions.

Technical and momentum indicators suggest gold will fall towards support at its January 2017 low of $1,146.20, said analysts at ScotiaMocatta. Fibonacci resistance was at $1,185.30, they said.

Investors were looking ahead to Friday and a speech by US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell at a conference in Jackson Hole in which he might give clues about the pace of US interest rate rises, analysts said.

Any display of caution about rate rises could push the dollar lower and give gold a leg up.

In other precious metals, spot silver was down 0.2% at $14.73 an ounce after hitting its lowest since February 2016 last week.

Platinum rose 1.7% to $795 an ounce but remained close to its lowest in a decade, while palladium, which last week traded at its weakest since July 2017, was up 0.4% at $913.81 an ounce.

Reuters