By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia as a strengthening dollar and rising U.S. yields pressured the yellow metal. Investors also await crucial U.S. inflation data that will be released later in the day.
Gold futures inched down 0.08% to $1,894.10 by 11:52 PM ET (3:52 AM GMT), after surpassing the $1,900 mark on Thursday. The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, edged up on Friday and the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.617%.
Bullion has risen 0.8% so far during the week and is on track for its fourth consecutive weekly gain.
Data released in the U.S. on Thursday said that 406,000 initial jobless claims were filed throughout the week. The number reached a 14-month low as layoffs subsided.
The U.S. GDP increased by 6.4% quarter-on-quarter during the first quarter of 2021, slightly below the 6.5% growth in forecasts prepared by investing.com but the same growth as the previous quarter.
However, U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan warned that the labor market was tighter than levels of employment suggest. Kaplan’s colleagues in the central bank had downplayed the impact of rising inflation in comments made throughout the week and pledged to keep a dovish monetary policy for some time.
Investors now await the Core Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index for April, to be released later in the day, to gauge inflationary pressure.
In Asia, the Japanese unemployment rate crept up while job availability fell in April, according to the jobs/applications ratio released earlier in the day. The ratio read 1.09, slightly under the 1.10 figure in both forecasts prepared by Investing.com and March’s reading.
The country is also set to extend a state of emergency for Tokyo and other key cities to Jun. 20.
In other precious metals, palladium was steady at $2,806.21 per ounce, silver inched down 0.1% and platinum inched up 0.1%.