By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia, held near a three-month low as the dollar continued to strengthen over the U.S. Federal Reserves’ tightening policies.
Gold futures were down 0.02% to $1,824.17 by 11:07 PM ET (3:07 AM GMT). Bullion is set for a 3.2% weekly drop, its biggest in two months.
The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, edged down on Friday morning.
The dollar climbed to a 20-year high. Investors are concerned about the recession caused by the tightening policies, giving the currency a boost.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields edged up on Friday.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell called stable prices the “bedrock” of the economy, saying on Thursday that the central bank’s battle to cool inflation would “include some pain” as the impact of higher interest rates is felt. But he said the worse outcome would be the prices to continue speeding ahead.
On the data front, the U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) released on Thursday showed a growth of 0.5% month-on-month in April, slower than the 1.6% increase in March, due to the easing pressure of rising costs for energy products.
Data released on Thursday also showed that the U.S. Initial Jobless Claims increased to 203,000 last week. The figure was above 195,000 forecasted by investing.com and 202,000 the previous week.
In other precious metals, silver was up 0.5%, but set for a fourth consecutive weekly fall. Platinum gained 0.8%, while palladium rose 1.4% but was set for weekly losses.