WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices climbed higher on Wednesday, extending gains to a fifth straight session, as concerns about inflation and the ongoing war in Ukraine continued to prompt investors to seek the safe-haven commodity.
A weak dollar and lower treasury yields supported gold's uptick. The yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury note pulled back further off the three-year closing high set on Monday.
The dollar index drifted down to 99.83, losing nearly 0.5% from the previous close, after having climbed to a high of 100.52 in the Asian session.
Gold futures for June ended higher by $8.60 or about 0.4% at $1,984.70 an ounce.
Silver futures for May ended up by $0.295 at $26.030 an ounce, while Copper futures for May settled at $4.7120 per pound, up $0.0025 from the previous close.
Data from the Labor Department said the producer price index for final demand shot up by 1.4% in March after advancing by an upwardly revised 0.9% in February.
Economists had expected producer prices to jump by 1.1% compared to the 0.8% increase originally reported for the previous month.
Energy prices led the way higher, skyrocketing by 5.7% during the month, while food prices also spiked by 2.4%.
With the bigger than expected monthly increase, the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to a record high 11.2% in March from 10.3 percent in February.
U.K. consumer price inflation advanced to 7% in March from 6.2% in February, the Office for National Statistics said. The rate was forecast to climb to 6.7%.
This was the highest annual inflation in the National Statistics series, which began in January 1997. It was also the highest rate in the historic modeled series since March 1992, when it stood at 7.1%.
Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2022 AFX News
