Gold dips as global economic recovery hopes grow

Wednesday’s trade session in Asia saw gold prices plunge as encouraging data boosted optimism for a faster global economic recovery from the pandemic.

Gold futures lost 0.20% to $1,739.45 despite US Treasury yields setback and the greenback falling to a two-week low.

JOLTs job openings in the U.S. reported a two-year high of 7.367 million vacancies for the month of February. The firm also reported its biggest hiring gain in nine months. U.S. President Joe Biden reset the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility target for all American adults to Apr. 19.

Meanwhile, the Caixin services Purchasing Managers Index in China tallied a 54.3 reading for March as investors wait for more Chinese data which include the Consumer Price and Producer Price indexes. These figures are set to be released on Friday.

In other precious metals, platinum shone as it improved 0.6%. Silver and palladium lost 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.