Gold Futures Settle Lower As Dollar Climbs Up

Gold prices fell on Wednesday as the dollar surged higher and bond yields rebounded from early losses.

The dollar stayed firm after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes largely reaffirmed the U.S. central bank’s more cautious stance on interest rates.

Minutes from the Fed’s last rate-setting meeting showed officials expect to keep interest rates at a restrictive level for “sometime” and raise interest rates if progress in controlling inflation faltered.

The dollar index rose to 104.21, gaining for a second straight session, after posting some losses late last week and earlier this week. The index pared some gains subsequently, but remains firm at 103.95, up nearly 0.4% from the previous close.

The yield on the benchmark ten-year note climbed into positive territory after hitting a two-month low.

Gold futures for December ended lower by $8.80 at $1,992.80 an ounce.

Silver futures for December ended down $0.181 at $23.688 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $3.7630 per pound, losing $0.0495.

In U.S. economic news today, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 209,000 in the week ended November 18th, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 233,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 225,000 from the 231,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A separate report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods pulled back by much more than expected in the month of October, plunging by 5.4%, after surging by 4.6% in September. Economists had expected durable goods orders to tumble by 3.1%.

The sharp pullback in durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment plummeted by 14.8% in October after spiking by 11.6% in September.

The University of Michigan also released revised data showing consumer sentiment in the U.S. deteriorated by less than previously estimated in the month of November

The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for November was upwardly revised to 61.3 from a preliminary reading of 60.4. The upwardly revised reading is well above economist estimates for 60.5 but is still down from 63.8 in October.

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