Gold prices slipped in Thursday's trading as the U.S. dollar rebounded and some investors appeared to take profits after prices touched a nine-month intraday high.
Front-month Comex gold for February delivery fell for the fifth time in six sessions, settling -0.6% at $1,916.30/oz after hitting an intraday high of $1,959.52/oz earlier, while spot gold (XAUUSD:CUR) closed -1.9% to $1,913.09, after reaching its best level April 2022 earlier in the day.
ETFs: (NYSEARCA:GLD), (NYSEARCA:GDX), (GDXJ), (IAU), (NUGT), (PHYS)
Most of the day's biggest decliners on the S&P/TSX Composite index were mining stocks, including K92 Mining (OTCQX:KNTNF) -7.1%, Torex Gold (OTCPK:TORXF) -7%, Oceana Gold (OTCPK:OCANF) -6.2%, Hudbay Minerals (HBM) -5.9%, and Osisko Mining (OTCPK:OBNNF) -5.8%.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell "was not nearly as hawkish as he had been in recent FOMC press conferences and left the door open to a Fed 'pivot' sooner rather than later," Kitco senior analyst Jim Wyckoff said.
Also weighing on gold was the afternoon's London bullion benchmarking auction, which "shows that the New Year jump in gold prices was driven far more by Comex and Shanghai speculation than by physical demand," according to Bullion Vault's Adrian Ash.
Gold underperformed in 2022 but is "set to shine in 2023," Gold Mining Bull writes in an analysis published recently on Seeking Alpha.