Gold faces third weekly decline as dollar, Treasury yields firm

Gold faces third weekly decline as dollar, Treasury yields firm

Gold prices edged lower on Friday, on track for a third straight weekly loss as the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields rallied on a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve stance, with investors awaiting U.S. jobs data due later in the day.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold fell 0.4% to $1,869.26 per ounce, as of 0137 GMT, while U.S. gold futures slipped 0.4% to $1,869.10. Bullion has declined about 1.5% so far this week.

* Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields firmed, while the dollar held near a 20-year high against a basket of currencies, making non-yielding bullion expensive for other currency holders.

* New claims for U.S. unemployment benefits increased to a more than two-month high last week, but remained at a level consistent with tightening labor market conditions and further wage gains that could keep inflation hot for a while.

* Investors will focus on U.S. Labor Department's non-farm payrolls numbers for April due later in the day.

* The Fed on Wednesday raised its benchmark rate by half a percentage point, the most in 22 years, but Chairman Jerome Powell explicitly ruled out a 75 bps raise in a coming meeting.

* The Bank of England sent a stark warning that Britain risks a double-whammy of a recession