Gold Futures Settle Higher As Dollar Continues To Drop

Gold prices climbed higher on Friday as the dollar continued to slide, extending recent losses, amid rising optimism the Federal Reserve will start slowing its pace of monetary tightening from next month.

The dollar index, which fell more than 2% in the previous session, dropped to a low of 106.46 today, losing over 1.6%.

Gold futures for December ended higher by $15.70 or about 0.9% at $1,769.40 an ounce. Gold futures gained about 5.5% in the week.

Silver futures for December ended down $0.035 at $21.667 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $3.7580 per pound, up $0.0580 from the previous close.

Data released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed U.S. consumer inflation rose 0.4% in October, pushing the annual increase below 8% for the first time in eight months.

The data raised hopes of Fed easing and a soft landing for the world’s largest economy.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yields plummeted to 3.81% overnight, reflecting expectations that the Federal Reserve will opt for small rate hikes from December. The bond markets are closed today for Veterans Day.

In U.S. economic news today, preliminary data released by the University of Michigan showed U.S. consumer sentiment has pulled back much more than expected in November after seeing modest improvements in recent months.

The report showed the consumer sentiment index slumped to 54.7 in November after inching up 59.9 in October. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 59.5.

The much bigger than expected decrease by the headline index was partly due to a steep drop by the current economic conditions index, which tumbled to 57.8 in November from 65.6 in October.

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