April 22 (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Thursday to hover
near an eight-week high touched in the last session, as a
sagging dollar and weaker U.S. Treasury yields boosted the
metal's appeal, while palladium held close to an all-time high
hit in the previous session.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,794.67 per ounce by
0115 GMT, after hitting its highest since Feb. 25 at $1,797.41
on Wednesday.
* U.S. gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,795.40 per ounce.
* Palladium gained 0.1% to $2,877.26 an ounce,
having surged to an all-time high of $2,891.20 per ounce on
Wednesday, boosted by supply concerns for the auto-catalyst
metal.
* Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was
pinned below 1.6%, reducing the opportunity cost of holding
non-yielding bullion.
* The dollar index fell 0.1% against its rivals,
making gold less expensive for other currency holders.
* A bipartisan U.S. congressional push to counteract China
picked up steam on Wednesday as a Senate committee
overwhelmingly backed a bill pressing Beijing on human rights
and economic competition and other lawmakers introduced a
measure seeking billions for technology research.
* The U.S. economy will grow at its fastest annual pace in
decades this year and outperform most of its major peers, but
another COVID-19 surge was the biggest risk over the next three
months, a Reuters poll showed.
* Market participants await a European Central Bank meeting
due later today and a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting next
week.
* More than 143.22 million people have been reported to be
infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 3,187,963 have
died, according to a Reuters tally.
* Among other precious metals, silver eased 0.1% to
$26.55 per ounce and platinum slipped 0.2% to $1,211.96.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0645 France Business Climate Mfg April
1145 EU ECB Refinancing, Deposit Rates April
1230 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly
1400 US Existing Home Sales March
Governing Council of the ECB holds monetary policy
meeting in Frankfurt
(Reporting by Shreyansi Singh in Bengaluru; editing by
Uttaresh.V)
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