Gold falls on rising dollar and US bond yields.

The gold prices fell ahead of a series of major central bank meetings on Thursday, while the dollar and US Treasury yields strengthened a day after disappointing private sector payrolls data pushed bullion lower. maximum of one week.

At 10:23 GMT, spot gold was down 0.2% at $1,803.16 an ounce, after hitting its highest level since January 27 at $1,810.86 in the previous session. US gold futures were down 0.4% at $1,803.70.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields rose slightly as the dollar index strengthened against rival currencies, making bullion more expensive for buyers with other currencies.

Investors are now awaiting non-farm payrolls figures on Friday, after Wednesday’s ADP data showed US private payrolls unexpectedly fell last month.

“Tomorrow’s payroll data would be important to get confirmation of the weakening labor market, which is a key factor for the Fed to go slow on its rate hike plans.”, said Soni Kumari, commodity strategist at ANZ. “We see inflation figures and geopolitical tension driving gold prices in the near term”, he added.

US Federal Reserve officials have signaled that they will start raising interest rates next month to combat high inflation.

Markets also expect the Bank of England to raise interest rates again later in the day, while the European Central Bank is set to keep its monetary policy unchanged but acknowledges rising inflation.

Gold is seen as a hedge against inflation, but rate hikes would make bullion, which does not pay interest, less attractive.

Among other precious metals, silver was down 0.9% at $22.42 an ounce, platinum was down 0.6% at $1,026.51 and palladium was up 0.1% at $2,372.15.

With information from Reuters.