Gold was up on Tuesday morning in Asia but slipped below a seven-week high hit during the previous session, as climbing U.S. Treasury yields overshadowed gains from a weaker dollar.
Gold futures inched up 0.10% to $1,772.45 by 12:56 PM ET (4:56 AM GMT). The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, edged down on Thursday.
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose above 1.6% after hitting a five-week low during the week, leading investors away from the safe-haven yellow metal.
Central banks also had a busy start to the week, with the People’s Bank of China leaving its loan prime rate unchanged at 3.85% and the Reserve Bank of Australia releasing the minutes from its latest policy meeting earlier in the day. The European Central Bank will hand down its policy decision on Thursday.
On the stimulus front, U.S. President Joe Biden met with a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers Monday to drum up support for his more-than-$2-trillion jobs and infrastructure proposal.
The surge in global COVID-19 cases globally continues, with the number topping the 141 million mark as of Apr. 20, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1%, palladium fell 0.3% and platinum edged down 0.2%.
