Gold Rebounds Amid Easing Bond Yields and Rising Real Interest Rates
The gold price rebounded nearly $100 per ounce on Friday as US inflation data matched analyst forecasts. The consumer price index held steady at 3.4% year-over-year in August, with core inflation excluding food and fuel prices slowing to 2.4%. This development has cemented expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike next Wednesday.
Despite the Fed's intentions, bond yields eased across the board on Friday, with the yield on 30-year US Treasury debt reaching 5.37% per annum, its highest since July 2004. However, inflation-protected 30-year Treasury securities offered a real interest rate of 3.06%, the highest on record since their introduction in 2010.
GOLD prices dipped to $4300 per troy ounce before rising to almost $4394 as London's benchmarking auction approached. Silver prices also surged, jumping over $2 per ounce from a three-week low near $63 after fixing at London's midday auction.
UBS' investment bank chief strategist Bhanu Baweja noted that gold has broken its traditional relationship with real yields. He stated that if $630 billion in bonds became inaccessible overnight, 'what constituted money? Reserve and asset managers globally [said] their answer was gold.'