Huayou seeks $2.7 billion for Ford-backed Indonesia nickel plant
The fundraising comes as benchmark nickel prices trade near a four-year low amid weaker demand from the stainless steel market.
Gold prices hit a three-month low on Thursday as the second day of Jerome Powell’s testimony gets underway, with the Federal Reserve Chair having hinted earlier at the possibility of more rate hikes needed to lift the economy.
Spot gold was down nearly 1.0% to $1,913.50 per ounce by 11:55 a.m. EDT, its lowest since mid-March. US gold futures dropped 1.1% to $1,923.70 per ounce in New York.
[Click here for an interactive chart of gold prices]
Meanwhile the US dollar rebounded from a more than one-month low hit earlier, while Treasury yields rose.
Gold briefly pared some losses after data showed US jobless claims held steady at a 20-month high last week, in what may be an early indication of a softening labor market in the face of the Fed’s aggressive credit tightening, but hastened its retreat soon after.
“The Fed and other central banks around the world continuing along their path of fighting inflationary pressures and the expectation that more rate hikes will be needed in the future is really the biggest weight on the gold market at the moment,” David Meger, director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures, told Reuters.
Further rate increases are “a pretty good guess” of where the central bank is heading if the economy continues in its current direction, Powell said in remarks to lawmakers on Wednesday.
But Powell’s hawkish tilt did little to sway investors who kept bets for only one additional rate increase this year, followed by cuts in January.
“We’re in the traditional summer doldrums on this June-July period where gold demand does have a tendency to wane,” Meger said.
(With files from Reuters)
