Gold futures settled slightly lower on Tuesday as investors chose to pick up riskier assets thanks to encouraging data on U.S. manufacturing activity and a slew of strong data from Europe and Asia.
Higher bond yields also contributed to gold’s decline. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury Note rose to 1.615%. A weak dollar limited gold’s downside.
Gold futures for August ended down $0.30 or about 0.02% at $1,905.00 an ounce.
Silver futures for July closed higher by $0.088 or 0.3% at $28.102 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $4.6535 per pound, down $0.0240 or $0.5% from the previous close.
Data from Markit Economics showed that the IHS Markit U.S. manufacturing index in May was at 62.1 versus an initial 61.5.
Manufacturing activity in the U.S. expanded at a slightly faster pace in the month of May, according to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management.
The ISM said its manufacturing PMI inched up to 61.2 in May from 60.7 in April, with a reading above 50 indicating growth in the manufacturing sector. The uptick surprised economists, who had expected the index to come in unchanged.
The modest increase by the headline index reflected an acceleration in the pace of new orders growth, as the new orders index climbed to 67.0 in May from 64.3 in April.
In economic news from overseas, surveys earlier in the day showed Asia’s factory activity continued to expand in May, thanks to an ongoing recovery in global demand.
China’s manufacturing sector expanded at a faster pace in May on robust new orders and production. The Caixin manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 52.0 in May, the highest level since December and inching up from 51.9 in April.
Eurozone manufacturing activity expanded at a record pace in May despite supple bottlenecks, a separate survey showed.
IHS Markit’s final Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a new record high of 63.1 in May from April’s 62.9. This was up from a preliminary 62.8.
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