Gold has been unable to close in the green in recent days, even as the dollar and Treasury yields have retreated.
Gold’s most active futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Comex), December, settled down $6.70, or 0.4%, at $1,834.80 an ounce. The benchmark gold futures contract lost 3.1% last week, its biggest weekly decline since the end of January. This week, December gold was off 2.6% for the current week.
XAUUSD Daily Chart
Gold prices typically are more closely watched by some traders than futures, settling at $1,821.20, down $1.78, or 0.1%, for the day. Spot gold fell 4% last week, the most since a near-6% plunge during the week to June 11, 2021. This week, it is on course for another 1.5% drop.
Rising yields and the dollar, gold’s twin nemeses, have practically wiped out most, if not all, of gold’s shine this year, leaving Comex futures barely in the positive for 2023 and the spot market in negative territory.
Late on Wednesday, the Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was at 106.77 after hitting an 11-month high of 107.35 on Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which leads US bond yields, was at 4.735, retreating from Monday’s 16-year high of 3.4906.
