Gold prices end down for 7th session in a row

Gold prices finished down for the seventh session in a row today, Oct. 3, with the US dollar and bond yields maintaining gains in light of expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue to tighten monetary policy for a longer period.

August job openings in the US grew to 9.6 million, surpassing the consensus estimate from economists for 8.8 million vacancies, the US Labor Department said today in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

This came just one month after the number of open jobs fell to its lowest level in over two years, a testament to the continued flexibility of the economy despite the Fed’s monetary policy tightening.

Addressing an event in Atlanta earlier today, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said the Fed should hold interest rates at elevated levels “for a long time” to bring inflation back down to its 2% target.

The CME FedWatch Tool data showed that the probability of a 25-basis-point interest rate hike at the Fed meeting in November rose to 27.70%, compared to 16.40% a week ago, pushing up the US central bank’s benchmark interest rate to a range of 5.50-5.75%.

In terms of trading, bullion for December delivery declined 0.30%, or $5.70, to close at $1,841.50 per ounce, hitting the lowest settlement since Nov. 30, 2022.

Meanwhile, the US dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six major currencies, climbed by 0.15% to 107.07 points at 08:37 pm Makkah time, after touching 107.35 points in early trading — the highest level since Nov. 22, 2022.