Gold and silver extended losses on Friday as a global rout in tech equities and a stronger US dollar wiped out most gains made by the metals during a brief rebound earlier this week. Spot gold was down 0.7 per cent at $4,735.99 per ounce, as of 0037 GMT, after a near 4 per cent drop on Thursday. US gold futures for April delivery fell 2.8 per cent to $4,752.40 per ounce.
Spot silver was down 3.2 per cent at $68.97 an ounce after a 19.1 per cent drop in the previous session. Earlier in the day, it fell as much as 10 per cent to trade below the $65 level and hit a more than 1-1/2 month low. MSCI’s global equities gauge slumped more than 1 per cent on Thursday as worries deepened about the enormous cost of the artificial intelligence boom, while US Treasuries were in demand after weak labour market data and, in commodities, silver took another hammering. [MKTS/GLOB][US/]
The US dollar hit a two-week high on Thursday as fresh volatility gripped stocks. [USD/]
Job openings, a measure of labour demand, fell by 386,000 to 6.542 million by the last day of December, the lowest level since September 2020, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Thursday.
Labour market weakness typically strengthens the case for interest rate cuts aimed at supporting job creation.
Investors expect at least two 25-basis-point rate cuts in 2026, with the first one expected in June. Non-yielding bullion tends to do well in low-interest-rate environments. [FED WATCH]
In geopolitical news, the White House said that diplomacy is President Donald Trump’s first choice for dealing with Iran and he will wait to see whether a deal can be struck at high-stakes talks, but also warned that he has military options at his disposal.
Spot platinum fell 3.6 per cent to $1,916.45 per ounce after hitting an all-time high of $2,918.80 on January 26, while palladium gained 1.3 per cent to $1,638.25.
