Gold oscillates around $1,800 as firm dollar weighs

Dec 30 (Reuters) – Gold prices slipped for a third straight session on Thursday as the dollar gained, with bullion hovering around the $1,800 mark as it heads towards its worst annual performance in six years.

Spot gold fell 0.1% to $1,801.69 per ounce by 1118 GMT while U.S. gold futures fell 0.2 % to $1,802.20.

“The $1,800 level seems to be behaving more like a magnet to the market with good buying below that level and good selling above it,” said independent analyst Ross Norman.

He said $1,814 was acting as technical resistance and $1,835 was “now the big number for the market”.

“Gold is seeing a little bit of buying on the basis of new position-taking and, on the other hand, it’s seeing some good selling on the basis of dollar strength in particular,” he said.

The dollar index (.DXY) climbed 0.2% on Thursday, recovering from close to a one-month low hit in the last session. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields steadied near a one-month peak, raising the opportunity cost of holding non-interest paying gold.

Gold prices have fallen about 5% in 2021, the most since 2015, as economies recovered from the impact of the pandemic, reducing demand for safe-haven bullion.

Prices hit a one-month high on Tuesday but slipped to a one-week low in the next session.

The back and forth seen over the last two days is less to do with any fundamental catalyst and is more an example of the market being very thin, meaning volatility is amplified, DailyFX currency strategist Ilya Spivak said.

Investors were awaiting U.S. weekly jobless claims data, a measure of the country’s economic health, due at 1330 GMT.

Spot silver dipped 0.3% to $22.73 an ounce, platinum dropped 0.8% to $960.50, and palladium fell 0.8% to $1,967.49, all set for their worst showing in several years.

Reporting by Bharat Govind Gautum, Seher Dareen and Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Kavya Guduru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi, Shounak Dasgupta, Barbara Lewis and David Clarke

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