On Friday, spot gold eased to $3,357.25 an ounce (down 0.3%) after U.S. jobless claims fell for the sixth consecutive week — the longest streak of declines since 2022. The persistent improvement in the labor market reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady at next week’s meeting.
Following the jobs data, Treasury yields rose and swap markets reduced their bets on the number of rate cuts this year, now pricing in fewer than two cuts and increasingly pointing to October as the earliest likely start of easing.
Meanwhile, the dollar strengthened after President Trump softened his criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which made gold relatively more expensive for overseas buyers. Despite the short-term pullback, gold is still higher by roughly 25% year-to-date, supported by ongoing trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty that continue to drive safe-haven demand.