• Spot gold was up 0.4 percent to $1,345.12 per ounce at 0423 GMT following Monday’s 0.5 percent gain.
• Prices fell 1.2 percent on Friday, the most since Dec. 7, 2017, after stronger-than-expected U.S. payrolls data shored up expectations that a pick-up in inflation will spur further rate hikes this year, boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
• U.S. gold futures for April delivery rose 0.9 percent to $1,348.00 per ounce on Tuesday.
• ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said he suspected an even bigger rally in prices considering the correction in the equity markets.
“The rate hikes have already been priced in by the market... but it’s certainly got the ability to temper the upside in gold prices,” Hynes said.
• Asian shares fell sharply after Wall Street suffered its biggest decline since 2011 on Monday as investors’ faith in factors underpinning a bull run in markets began to crumble.
• Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged but said inflation likely would rise this year and hinted at “further gradual” rate increases.
• Spot gold may retest a resistance at $1,354 as it seems to have stabilised around a support at $1,326 per ounce, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
• Spot silver rose 1.1 percent to $16.92 per ounce. It fell 3.7 percent on Friday in its biggest one-day decline since December 2016.
• Platinum gained 0.4 percent to $993.40 per ounce, while Palladium was down 1.8 percent to $1,012.00 per ounce after touching its lowest since Dec. 14, 2017.
Global gold demand slid 7 percent in 2017 to 4,071.7 tonnes, an eight-year low, the WGC said in it latest quarterly demand trends report.
Investment demand fell by nearly a quarter, driven by reduced inflows into bullion-backed exchange traded funds, the gold mining industry-funded WGC said. While gold prices rose last year on the back of dollar weakness, rising interest rates and a surge in stock markets detracted from the metal’s appeal as an investment.
Reference: Reuters,Daily FX