Gold: Lost the three-day uptrend, held at $ 1,800

Gold closed lower on Thursday, breaking a three-day winning streak but staying above $ 1,800 as investors awaited monthly US employment data to weigh in on the precious metal’s next move.

Gold came under pressure from rising US government bond yields, while the dollar lost 0.6% after “unexpectedly negative” data on private sector jobs were announced on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the ISM Services Index, which measures the activity of the non-manufacturing sector of the US economy, moved to an 11-month low in January. The resurgence of the COVID-19 infection wave has hit demand in a number of activities, with many workers staying at home for many days.

The ISM reported that the non-manufacturing activity index in January fell to 59.9 points, its lowest level since February 2021, from 62.3 points in December. Services account for two-thirds of US economic activity. Financial analysts in a Reuters survey forecast the index at 59.5 points.

“Gold and silver are not yet embracing inflation, while part of the market is still confident that the Federal Reserve will hold inflation before it starts to move further upwards,” Zaner analysts said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse economists predict that the precious metal will reconsider the area around $ 1,691, if it falls below $ 1,759.

Furthermore, the The ECB today confirmed the decisions received at the monetary policy meeting last December, reiterating that in the first quarter of 2022 it will conduct net purchases under the Pandemic Emergency Program (PEPP) at a slower pace than in the previous quarter. At the same time, it confirmed that it would stop net asset purchases under the PEPP program at the end of March 2022.

The assessment of the European Central Bank that inflation will begin to decline in 2022 after the rally of previous months was reiterated today by the President of the Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, acknowledging, however, that Inflation will remain higher than originally estimated something that has caused concern to the Board. the bank’s.

For its part, the Bank of England proceeded to increase its interest rates by 25 basis points, at 0.5%, with half of the bank members, however, being in favor of a larger increase by 50 bp. in order to curb inflation.

In this climate, the April delivery gold fell $ 6.20, or 0.3%, to $ 1,804.10 an ounce.

The March delivery silver lost 33 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $ 22.375 an ounce.

As for the other metals, o March delivery copper slipped 0.6% to $ 4,471 per pound, while the April delivery contract for platinum lost 1.3% to $ 1,030.30 an ounce.

Finally, the palladium delivery in March fell 2.2% to $ 2,317.70 an ounce, down 2.2%.