Gold continued to fall lower ahead of the release of the US NFP jobs report, putting the precious metal trading to a two -week low in the Asian session.
The minutes of the FOMC meeting, published on Thursday, have further boosted market optimism to see a faster -than -expected rise in interest rates.
This is also supported by the hawkish statement of St. Louis Federal Reserve (Fed) President James Bulard who said they could raise interest rates in March, which is when the bond -buying program ends.
While San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly told that the central bank needs to raise interest rates to maintain economic balance.
With the expectation that NFP data will show a strong reading in December, investors are confident that the employment target set by the Fed can be achieved.
This caused holdings in the precious metal gold to continue to be released, in addition to being affected by the higher US 10 -year bond yield at 1.72%.
In the Asian session, spot gold traded weak at $ 1,790 per ounce, while gold futures hovered at $ 1,789 per ounce.
