LONDON: Gold dipped on Tuesday, heading for a third straight day of losses as a rise in US borrowing costs supported the dollar and overshadowed the impact of strife in Gaza.

“The market is getting increasingly disappointed about (gold’s) inability to react to those (geopolitical) drivers,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. “We’re up against bond yields, the dollar and the fact that rising oil prices have at this stage accelerated expectations for rate hikes in the United States, due to the risk of inflation.”

Spot gold had dipped 0.2pc to $1,309.99 per ounce by 0949 GMT. US gold futures for June delivery fell 0.6pc to $1,309.70 per ounce.

A Federal Reserve official this week backed the case for further interest rate hikes in the United States, saying inflation had not yet reached the US central bank’s 2pc goal in a sustained way.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust , the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.17pc to 856.17 tonnes on Monday. Spot gold may retest support at $1,302 per ounce, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.

Silver was down 0.4pc at $16.43 per ounce. Platinum was up 0.1pc at $904 per ounce, while palladium fell 2pc to $975.72 an ounce, after dropping to a more than one-week low at $964. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said on Tuesday it would examine whether a takeover of miner Lonmin by South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater would lessen competition.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2018