Gold swoons to 11-week low on dollar, hawkish Fed double-whammy
By Nakul Iyer
June 29 (Reuters) - Gold slipped over 1% to its lowest since mid-April on Tuesday as a stronger dollar dented appetite for the metal in the run-up to this week's U.S. jobs report, which is widely expected to come in strong and could cement the Federal Reserve's recent hawkish stance.
Spot gold slipped 1.4% to $1,753.66 per ounce by 10:12 a.m. EDT (1412 GMT), after touching $1,749.20, its lowest since April 15. U.S. gold futures fell 1.4% to $1,755.20.
Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, said that, in addition to a stronger dollar, some investors are likely anticipating better-than-expected jobs data.
"The calls for interest rates to trend higher are going to be much louder from the Fed if we do get a better-than-expected jobs number," weighing on gold, Haberkorn said.
The U.S. Labor Department's nonfarm payrolls data due on Friday is expected to show a gain of 690,000 jobs this month, compared with 559,000 in May, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
The data is due after comments from Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin, who suggested the Fed had made "substantial further progress" in its inflation goal in order to begin tapering asset purchases.
"Considering the Fed's recent hawkish tilt, it is difficult to make a strong bullish case for gold," said Han Tan, chief market analyst at Exinity Group.
Growing signs that point to a sooner-than-expected U.S. interest rate hike and the preceding tapering should heap more downward pressure on gold, potentially bringing it down to $1,730, Tan added.
The dollar index rose 0.3%, making gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.
In other metals, silver fell 1.7% to $25.65 per ounce, platinum slipped about 2% to $1,068.92, and palladium shed 0.8% to $2,665.74. (Reporting by Nakul Iyer and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
