Yahoo Finance Gold Prices Down In Asia In Holiday-Thinned Trade
Investing.com - Gold prices eased in Asia on Monday despite some support from a weaker dollar as several key regional markets including China were shut for holidays.
Gold futures for April delivery eased 0.21% to $1,353.40 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The US dollar index fell 0.13% to 88.91.
Markets in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, the US and Canada are shut on Monday. In the week ahead, investors will focus on minutes of the Fed’s latest policy meeting with hopes the central bank will give more hints on the pace of future rate hikes this year.
Last week, gold prices pulled back from three-week highs on Friday as the dollar rebounded against a currency basket, but losses were held in check as the dollar remained near multi-year lows. A stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for overseas buyers.
Expectations for a faster rate of monetary tightening outside the U.S., which would lessen the divergence between the Federal Reserve and other central banks has eroded the dollar’s relative yield attraction for investors.
The greenback has also been hit by concerns that recent tax cuts will negatively impact the US fiscal deficit, which is projected to balloon to near $1 trillion in 2019.
Although gold struggles to compete with yield-bearing assets such as Treasury’s when borrowing costs rise, some analysts said the factors that drove the uptick in inflation were cyclical, meaning growth in inflation is likely to be gradual.
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