By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia as U.S. Treasury yield fell. Investors also digested a record low number of jobless claims and a higher-than-expected Producer Price Index (PPI).
Gold futures inched down 0.07% to $1,822.80 by 12:45 AM ET (4:45 AM GMT). The Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield slid from a more than one-month high hit on Thursday.
Data released on Tuesday said that 473,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the U.S. for the previous week, a 14 month low. The number was also lower than the 490,000 claims in forecasts prepared by Investing.com as well as the 507,000 claims filed during the previous week.
Meanwhile, the PPI increased 0.6% month-on-month in April, which surpassed 0.3% growth in forecasts prepared by Investing.com but below March’s 1.0% rise.
Meanwhile, investors remain concerned that the signs of rising inflation would force the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike interest rates earlier than expected. However, the central bank continued to maintain that it would only change its current dovish monetary stance after the economy reaches full employment, and inflation hits 2% and is on track to "moderately" exceed that level for some time.
Fed governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday that he expects inflation above the Fed’s 2% target may last through 2022, but that it would be temporary, and the Fed will not raise interest rates until it sees inflation above target for a long time, or excessively high inflation.
“Despite the unexpectedly high Consumer Price Index inflation report earlier in the week, the factors putting upward pressure on inflation are temporary, and an accommodative monetary policy continues to have an important role to play in supporting the recovery,” Waller said at a virtual event hosted by the Global Interdependence Center.
“We will not overreact to temporary overshoots of inflation.”