Gold falls 1% after strong U.S. jobs data, firmer dollar

Gold retreated on Friday and posted a weekly decline after robust U.S. jobs data drove the dollar higher and bolstered bets that the Federal Reserve would aggressively raise rates

Spot gold fell 0.7% to $1,922.90 per ounce on Friday. U.S. gold futures dropped 1.4% to $1,927.2

Bullion posted a 1.4% drop for the week

U.S. job data showed the unemployment rate falling to a new two-year low of 3.6% and wages re-accelerating, positioning the Fed to raise interest rates by a hefty 50 basis points in May

The data powered gains in benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields and the dollar, making gold less appealing for overseas buyers

Expectations for a rate hike are driving gold lower, said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities, as that would translate into higher opportunity cost of holding non-yielding gold

However, he added that, ”(Fed) policy has a long way to go to be even neutral… and gold is going to continue to be fairly firm

Meanwhile, negotiations aimed at ending the five-week war between Russia and Ukraine were set to resume even as Ukraine braced for further attacks

“While geopolitical crises do not last forever, we expect the secondary impacts of the Russia-Ukraine crisis to provide a strong level of support for gold prices this year,” ANZ said in a note

Platinum fell 0.5% to $991.2, while palladium gained 0.5% to $2,267.50

“In the near term we could see a tighter environment in precious group metals, particularly palladium,” Melek said, highlighting a possible “erosion of availability from Russian sources

Elsewhere, silver fell 1.5% to $24.75 per ounce