· Gold fell 1% in choppy trading on Wednesday, en route to snap a five-session-long winning streak, after April’s jump in U.S. consumer prices buoyed the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields, reducing appetite for non-yielding bullion.
· Spot gold fell 0.8% to $1,822.91 per ounce by 1:51 p.m. EDT (1751 GMT) after falling up to 1% earlier in the session.
· U.S. gold futures settled down 0.7% at $1,822.80.
· “People trading gold and silver are a little concerned that maybe this inflation is getting a little too quick, and the Fed did say they have tools to tamp it down. ... Traders are concerned about what those tools may be,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
· “For this week, you’re going to see caution in the gold and silver markets.”
· Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields jumped on the stronger data.
· While gold is viewed as a hedge against higher inflation that could follow stimulus measures, higher Treasury yields have weighed on gold, which is down over 4% for the year so far.
· The dollar index was up 0.6%, making gold expensive for holders of other currencies.
· U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida on Wednesday said it’s “not yet” time to pull back on support for the economy, though he also added the central bank would not hesitate to use tools if it sees risk of persistent upward drift in inflation expectations.
· “You’re still going to see the Fed remain stubbornly accommodative here, and that should provide some underlying support (to gold),” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said.
· “What you’re going to see is that the market is going to slowly transition to viewing gold as an inflation hedge.”
· Elsewhere, palladium fell as much as 3% and was last down 2.4% at $2,867.06 per ounce, while platinum dipped 1.3% to $1,218.83.
· Silver fell 1.6% to $27.17 per ounce.
· Inflation speeds up in April as consumer prices leap 4.2%, fastest since 2008
Inflation in April accelerated at its fastest pace in more than 12 years as the U.S. economic recovery kicked into gear and energy prices jumped higher, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
· Biden holds his first meeting with the top four congressional leaders to discuss infrastructure.
President Biden met on Wednesday with Republican and Democratic leaders from both houses of Congress for the first time since taking office, but the discussion appeared to make only modest progress toward resolving disagreements on Mr. Biden’s proposals to spend $4 trillion on infrastructure and families.
The closed-door meeting at the White House included Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader; Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader; and their counterparts in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California. Vice President Kamala Harris also attended.
· Biden, congressional leaders didn’t get anywhere on infrastructure during big White House meeting
President Joe Biden hosted the Democratic and Republican leaders from both houses of Congress on Wednesday at the White House, where they discussed the president’s infrastructure plan for nearly two hours but made little headway on a consensus.
· Elon Musk says Tesla will stop accepting bitcoin for car purchases, citing environmental concerns
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday on Twitter that Tesla has “suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin,” out of concern over “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining.”
The price of bitcoin dropped about 5% in the first minutes after Musk’s announcement.
· Top U.S. and Russian diplomats will meet next week in Iceland
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet in person with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Iceland on May 20.
· Biden signs executive order to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity defenses after Colonial Pipeline hack
· Colonial Pipeline restarts after hack, but supply chain won’t return to normal for a few days
· Israel steps up Gaza offensive, kills senior Hamas figures
· Fighting between Israel and Palestinians escalating toward a full-scale war, UN warns
· CDC OKs Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for use in adolescents, clearing way for shots to begin Thursday
· CDC says 28 blood clot cases, 3 deaths may be linked to J&J Covid vaccine
Thai
Eng