Gold prices are hovering near two-month highs as hopes of a mid-year U.S. interest rate cut heat up

(1) Gold prices hovered near a two-month high on Monday and are currently trading at $2,081.93 an ounce. Weak U.S. economic data released late last week raised hopes of a Fed rate cut in June, sending the dollar and Treasury yields lower. Gold briefly touched $2,088.19 on Friday, the highest since Dec. 28. (2) The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield and the U.S. dollar index retreated on Friday, as the previous data showed that the U.S. manufacturing sector fell further in February and construction spending unexpectedly fell in January. (3) The market also assessed new issues with U.S. regional bank New York Community Bank (NYCB), increasing the attractiveness of safe-haven assets such as gold. (4) The next big U.S. economic data will be Friday’s February jobs report. (5) Last Friday’s data showed that in the week ended February 27, the net long position of COMEX gold speculators increased by 3,694 lots to 68,042 lots