Gold and Silver Prices Plummet Amid Strong US Employment Data

The strong US employment data in August caused a significant sell-off in gold and silver prices. According to Ian Cooper, the resilient jobs uptick raised the chances of another Fed rate hike, making it more expensive to hold gold. The higher interest rates would increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like gold.

The price of spot gold fell 1.1% to $4,422.91 after touching $4,364.99, while silver prices also declined. The strong jobs data led to a rise in the dollar and Treasury yields, dampening demand for assets with no interest income.

Analysts Ash Crypto and Bull Theory estimated that around $790 billion to $835 billion was lost from the value of gold and silver within a short period. They attributed this loss to the better-than-expected jobs data, which led to higher rate hike expectations.