By Swati Verma
(Reuters) – Gold was steady on Thursday, but could end an eight-session losing streak, last seen in 2016, as U.S. bond yields and the dollar retreated from recent highs ahead of a keenly awaited non-farm payrolls report this week.
Spot gold was steady at $1,821.64 per ounce by 0733 GMT. U.S. gold futures gained 0.1% to $1,835.80.
“While there is an attempt for gold prices to stabilize into today’s session, there is not much conviction of a reversal just yet,” IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong said.
Any moves before the U.S. non-farm payroll may be short-lived, with the official jobs data still the key catalyst in dictating market direction along with the U.S. CPI data next week, he added.
Data on Thursday showed U.S. private payrolls increased far less than expected in September. Markets now await the Labor Department’s more comprehensive employment report on Friday.
A broad selloff in world government bonds on Wednesday drove up U.S. 30-year Treasury yields to 5% for the first time since 2007. The benchmark 10-year bond yield fell from 16-year highs on Thursday and the U.S. dollar was 0.1% lower, easing some pressure on non-yielding gold. [US/][USD/]
SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell to its lowest since August 2019. [GOL/ETF]
Spot gold may test a resistance at $1,834 per ounce, a break above which could lead to a gain to $1,855, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao. [TECH/C]
The subdued dollar also buoyed other greenback-priced precious metals, with spot silver 0.5% to $21.07 per ounce, having slipped to its lowest since mid-March this week.
Platinum fell 0.4% to $862.74, after hitting its lowest in a year hit in the last session, and palladium eased 0.1% to $1,166.78, near a 5-year low touched on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Swati Verma and Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami, Sonia Cheema and Varun H K)