Gold Little Changed With Markets Calm

By Amrith Ramkumar and David Hodari

Gold prices swung between small gains and losses Friday, hurt by a stronger dollar but benefiting from a continued drop in Treasury yields.

Gold for June delivery was recently down 0.1% at $1,303.30 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices surged back above $1,300 Thursday after President Donald Trump canceled a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with the news prompting some safe-haven buying.

But North Korea's response to the move was softer than many analysts were expecting, with officials saying in a statement they remained willing "to sit down face-to-face with the U.S. and resolve issues anytime and in any format."

More placid markets and a rise in the dollar and Treasury yields sent gold to its lowest close of the year last week, as a stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for overseas buyers and higher yields make the metal less attractive to some investors.

On Friday, the WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of 16 others, rose 0.3% around a fresh year-to-date high. A drop in Treasury yields was benefiting gold, though, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note falling to 2.928%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.981%. Yields fall as bond prices rise.

Some analysts viewed Wednesday's minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting as more conservative and a sign that the central bank will remain on its gradual path of rate increases even if inflation reaches its target. That could boost gold, which is used by some money managers to hedge against a rise in consumer prices.

Among base metals, copper for July delivery edged down 0.7% to $3.0760 a pound, tracking a decline in oil prices. Some investors trade the two commodities in a single basket. Copper is down more than 6% in 2018 after hitting a nearly four-year high late last year, hurt by worries about oversupply and an economic slowdown in China, the world's largest consumer.

Write to Amrith Ramkumar at [email protected] and David Hodari at [email protected]