Gold dips as record-low jobless claims, higher-than-expected producer prices turn investors away

Gold was lackluster on Friday in Asian trade as investors digested a record low number of jobless claims and a higher-than-expected Producer Price Index, unable to capitalize on declining US Treasury yield.

Gold futures loss 0.07% to $1,822.80. Coming from a more than one-month high hit on Thursday, the Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury suffered from a setback on Friday.

Based on official data released on Tuesday, a lowly 473,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the U.S. for the previous week, the lowest in 14 months. This was also lower than the 490,000 claims predicted by analysts and even lower from the 507,000 claims filed during the previous week.

Meanwhile, the PPI inched up 0.6% month-on-month in April. Though beating analysts’ forecast, the PPI fell below the 1.0% rise posted in March.

Amidst the growing inflation concerns, the Federal Reserve reiterated its stance to only move its current dovish monetary policy after the economy reaches full employment, in congruence with a 2% inflation mark and beyond.