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Gold futures headed higher Friday morning for a second straight day, putting bullion on track for the sharpest weekly rise in about a month.
The precious metal was benefiting from benchmark bond yields receding, weakness in the U.S. dollar
DXY,
and a pullback in bitcoin
BTCUSD,
one of the assets seen competing against safe haven gold.
June gold
GCM21,
GC00,
was trading $13.20, or 0.7%, higher at $1,779.70 an ounce on Comex, following a 1.8% gain on Thursday.
For the week, gold was on pace for a weekly rise of 1.3%, which would mark its biggest weekly advance since the period ended March 19, FactSet data show.
The 10-year Treasury note
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
was yielding 1.57%, below its recent range between 1.60% and 1.75%. A fall in government debt yields can boost appetite for precious metals which don’t earn a coupon.
Meanwhile, the dollar was down 0.2% at 91.542, as gauged by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
a measure of the buck against a half-dozen currencies. The dollar is down 0.7% so far this week and off 1.8% in April so far. A weaker dollar can make dollar-pegged assets more appealing to overseas buyers.
Market participants have said that rising U.S. tensions with China and Russia have helped to boost the metal’s haven appeal.
Tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan have climbed, and the Biden administration on Thursday expelled some Russian diplomats and announced sanctions against dozens of people and companies, partly in retaliation to Russia’s interference in last year’s presidential election.
