Daily Gold Update

Source:Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold slid 0.8% to close under $1,737 as tumbling oil prices and rising bond yields undercut demand for alternative assets despite further weakness in equities and a slightly lower dollar. It was the metal's lowest finish in more than a month.

US benchmark WTI crude plunged 5.5% to under $91.65 per barrel on concerns that slowing global growth will erode demand. With inflation near double-digits in the world's biggest economies, additional interest rate hikes are expected to further curtail economic expansion.

Gold often trades in sympathy with oil as a hedge against energy-related inflation.

Fallout from Fed Chair Powell's hawkish speech at Jackson Hole last Friday also weighed on the metal. Powell vowed to continue raising rates and hold them at elevated levels for an extended period to slow the economy and lower inflation, even if it causes "some pain" to individuals and the markets.

All three major US stock indexes fell more than 1% on the anticipation of higher interest rates and slower growth.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields ticked higher on the hawkish rate view, pressuring gold by increasing the opportunity cost for holding it instead of bonds as a safe-haven asset.

After spending much of the day in the black, the dollar slipped into loss of 0.1% against major rivals on expectations that the ECB will have to follow the Fed's lead with supersized rate hikes.

The other precious metals were sharply lower. Silver fell 2.1% while platinum shed 2.6% and palladium 2%.

At the Comex close: December gold dropped 0.8%, to $1,736.30; December silver fell 38 cents to $18.29; October platinum lost $22.20 to $832.10; and December palladium shed $42.50 to $2,087.80 an ounce.