Investing.com - Gold prices moved lower on Thursday, as the dollar wallowed around the unchanged mark and yields on U.S. Treasuries rose.
Comex gold futures fell $2.60, or around 0.2%, at $1,350.90 a troy ounce by 10:23AM ET (14:23GMT), while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.04% to 89.31.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury topped 2.9% on Thursday, a day after the yield on the 2-year hit its highest level since September 2008.
The move lower in gold, which does not pay interest, may be due to its inability to compete with yield-bearing fixed income.
Economic data released on Thursday gave a mixed reading, as weekly jobless claims dipped less than expected. Still, the U.S. economy is still considered to be at or near full employment with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1%.
On the positive side, the Philly Fed manufacturing index unexpectedly increased as firms continued to be optimistic about the outlook for manufacturing activity.
Earlier on Thursday, Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard delivered a speech suggesting that it was too early to relax bank regulation due to rising asset prices and leverage. Although Brainard mostly steered clear of monetary policy, she suggested that inflation was well-anchored by some signs of imbalances.
Fed governor Randal Quarles delivered his semi-annual testimony on bank regulation to the Senate on Thursday, in a repeat of the comments delivered to the House on Tuesday. No comments were made on monetary policy.
Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester could offer some more relevant clues to the future path of interest rates when she delivers remarks on the outlook and monetary policy at a conference scheduled for 6:45PM ET (22:45GMT) .
Traders are currently pricing in around a 100% chance of the next rate hike in June, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool. Odds of a third rate hike by December was seen at about 90%.