Gold steadies below US$1,800 as firm dollar, yields weigh

[BENGALURU] Gold prices steadied on Wednesday, after slipping 1.6 per cent in the previous session when it breached the key psychological level of US$1,800, as gains in the dollar and a rise in US Treasury yields hurt bullion's appeal.

Spot gold rose 0.1 per cent to US$1,796.03 per ounce by 1.16am GMT, hovering slightly above the more than one-week low of US$1,791.90 hit on Tuesday.

US gold futures were steady at US$1,799.40.

The dollar hovered near a one-week peak against major peers.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose as high as 1.385 per cent on Tuesday for the first time since mid-July, increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing bullion.

US President Joe Biden will present on Thursday a six-pronged strategy intended to fight the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant and increase vaccinations.

Japan's economy grew faster than the initially estimated in the April-June quarter, helped by solid capital expenditure, although a resurgence in Covid-19 is undermining service-sector consumption and clouding the outlook.

Russia's Nornickel, world's largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, has extracted additional metals from waste products as part of new technology it tested to support its 2021 output from its Arctic mines that were hit by flooding, it said on Tuesday.

Venezuela's gold reserves fell by three tonnes in the first half of 2021 to their lowest level in 50 years, central bank data showed on Tuesday, as President Nicolas Maduro's cash-strapped government continues selling gold as a source of income.

Silver rose 0.1 per cent to US$24.32 per ounce, platinum edged 0.3 per cent higher to US$1,001.36 and palladium was up 0.2 per cent to US$2,376.37.

REUTERS