Gold down, dollar up as investors look to slew of us treasury auctions

LONDON: Gold was down on Monday morning in Asia as the dollar remained buoyant and ten-year Treasury yields remained near their highest level in more than a year.
Gold futures inched down 0.09% at $1,740.15 by 12:25 AM ET (4:25 AM GMT) and the dollar inched up on Monday.
U.S. Treasury auctions of two-, five- and seven-year debt later in the week are also on investors’ radars. Big U.S. banks will also have to resume holding an extra layer of loss-absorbing capital against U.S. Treasuries and central bank deposits from April onwards after the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Friday it would not extend a temporary COVID-19 regulatory break due to expire in March 2021.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated in a Wall Street Journal editorial that the Fed will continue to provide aid to the economy “for as long as it takes” with the recovery currently far from complete. He added the U.S. would pull out of the COVID-19 crisis “stronger and better, as we have done so often before.”
Investors also look to the BIS Innovation Summit later in the day, where Powell is on the speaker list alongside other central bank heads including European Central Bank’s Christine Lagarde and the Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey.
Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will also make their first joint appearance before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday to testify on Fed and Treasury COVID-19 policies.
Across the Atlantic, Turkey’s surprise replacement of central bank governor Naci Agbal over the weekend also drove investors to the safe-haven dollar. President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s replacement of Agbal with Sahap Kavcioglu also sparked fears of turmoil in other financial markets.
In Asia, the People’s Bank of China kept its loan prime rate unchanged at 3.85% earlier in the day.
In other precious metals, palladium edged up 0.2%. Silver fell 1.2% and platinum slid 1.3%, however.