WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled lower on Tuesday, weighed down by strong U.S. economic data.
Investors also looked ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the policy panel before the European Central Bank Forum in Sintra on Wednesday.
Data on U.S. personal income and spending for May, which includes a reading on inflation said to be preferred by the Fed, is due later this week.
A weak dollar helped limit gold's downside. The dollar index, which dropped to 102.32, recovered a bit to 102.48, but still remained in negative territory, losing about 0.2%.
Gold futures for August ended lower by $10.00 at $1,923.80 an ounce.
Silver futures for July ended up $0.134 at $22.960 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $3.7795 per pound, down $0.0145 from the previous close.
Edward Moya, Senior Market Analyst says gold remains under pressure as US consumer still looks strong. 'Today's economic data in the US painted a picture of a resilient economy that could be subject to further Fed tightening. The ECB also signaled there is no end in sight for their rate hiking cycle and that has also helped send Global Bond yields higher,' he says. 'It has been pretty ugly for gold since early May and if expectations grow for further Fed tightening, that could send gold tentatively below the $1900 level.'
Data from the Commerce Department showed durable goods orders shot up by 1.7% in May after jumping by an upwardly revised 1.2% in April. Economists had expected durable goods orders to slump by 1% compared to the 1.1% advance that had been reported for the previous month.
A separate Commerce Department report said new home sales soared 12.2% to an annual rate of 763,000 in May after surging 3.5% to a revised rate of 680,000 in April.
Economists had expected new home sales to slump 1.2% to an annual rate of 675,000 from the 683,000 originally reported for the previous month.
With the unexpected spike, new home sales reached their highest level since hitting a rate of 773,000 in February 2022.
Another report released by the Conference Board showed the consumer confidence index jumped to 109.7 in June from a revised 102.5 in May. Economists had expected the index to rise to 103.7 from the 102.3 originally reported for the previous month.
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