Resilient Performance From Bullion

Gold is little changed in the Asia-Pac session, after holding up well on Thursday considering USD strength and the scale of the push higher in Treasury yields. Cash US tsys finished 7-11bps cheaper across the major benchmarks with the belly leading.

• The impetus for the move in USD and US tsys was lower-than-expected initial jobless claims data, which printed 228k versus market expectations of circa 240k. The weekly claims data was the latest print to highlight the resilience of the US economy.
• Recently, gold has been supported by indications of a slowdown in price increases, leading traders to speculate about the Federal Reserve's potential pause in interest rate hikes, despite policymakers maintaining a hawkish stance.
• FOMC hike projections gained slightly on Thursday with July running at 96% with an implied rate of +24bp to 5.318%. Terminal rate expectations are holding at 5.42% in Nov'23.
• According to the MNI technicals team, the overnight high of $1987.45 briefly cleared key resistance at $1985.3 (May 24 high), which if sustained in the near term could open $1993.8 (2.0% 10-DMA envelope).