Gold prices rose on Thursday to hover near an eight-week high touched in the last session, as a sagging dollar and weaker U.S. Treasury yields boosted the metal’s appeal, while palladium held close to an all-time high hit in the previous session.
Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,794.67 per ounce by 0115 GMT, after hitting its highest since Feb. 25 at $1,797.41 on Wednesday as U.S. gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,795.40 per ounce.
Palladium gained 0.1% to $2,877.26 an ounce, having surged to an all-time high of $2,891.20 per ounce on Wednesday, boosted by supply concerns for the auto-catalyst metal.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was pinned below 1.6%, reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
The dollar index fell 0.1% against its rivals, making gold less expensive for other currency holders.
A bipartisan U.S. congressional push to counteract China picked up steam on Wednesday as a Senate committee overwhelmingly backed a bill pressing Beijing on human rights and economic competition and other lawmakers introduced a measure seeking billions for technology research.
The U.S. economy will grow at its fastest annual pace in decades this year and outperform most of its major peers, but another COVID-19 surge was the biggest risk over the next three months, a Reuters poll showed.
Market participants await a European Central Bank meeting due later today and a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting next week.
More than 143.22 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 3,187,963 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Among other precious metals, silver eased 0.1% to $26.55 per ounce and platinum slipped 0.2% to $1,211.96.
