Investing.com — Gold prices recovered from overnight losses in Asian trading on Thursday to remain below recent highs as fears of longer yields and pressure from a strong dollar continued to play a role.
The yellow metal soared to record highs last week as demand for safe havens increased after Iran launched an attack on Israel. But fears of a wider conflict cooled somewhat this week as Israel did not immediately retaliate for the attack.
US dollar pressure also eased somewhat this week as the greenback retreated from a five-month high on Wednesday. But the prospect of longer interest rates saw gold benefit little from this weakness.
rose 0.6% to $2,374.31 per ounce, while the June maturity rose slightly to $2,389.05 per ounce at 00:21 ET (04:21 GMT). Spot prices fell 0.9% on Wednesday, taking some gains after rising to record highs of more than $2,340 an ounce last week.
Gold is experiencing profit taking, but is about to leave overbought territory
Gold saw heavy profit-taking this week after hitting record highs, mainly as the lack of immediate escalation in the Iran-Israel conflict returned some risk appetite to the markets.
Spot prices still remained in overbought territory, according to their 14-day relative strength index. But the indicator was close to a return to neutral territory below 70 points – a scenario that could potentially spur gold to short-term gains.
Still, further gains in gold remain questionable in light of ever-lengthening US interest rates. Strong inflation data and hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve had traders largely pricing in expectations for a central bank rate cut in June.
Other precious metals were mixed on Thursday after also showing some weakness this week. fell 0.3% to $949.60 per ounce, while rising 0.2% to $28.465 per ounce.
Copper and aluminum rise due to dollar weakness
Industrial metal prices rose back to recent highs on Thursday, benefiting from a softer dollar and expectations that US economic resilience will help support metal demand.
on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.4% to $9,591 per tonne, close to a two-year high, while it rose 0.5% to $4.3623 per pound, also close to a high in stayed for two years.
rose 0.6% to $2,589.0 per tonne.
Industrial metal prices have soared in recent weeks on expectations of tighter supply after the US and its allies imposed tougher sanctions on Russian metal exports.
Copper prices were also boosted as several major Chinese smelters said they would cut production.
