Gold heads for weekly decline amid rising rate pressures

By Ashitha Shivaprasad

March 10 (Reuters) – The price of gold rose on Friday but was heading for a weekly decline as the prospect of further interest rate hikes dampened its appeal as traders awaited the payrolls report no Agriculture in the United States, to be released later today.

* As of 09:09 GMT, spot gold was up 0.3% at $1,836.18 an ounce, plunging more than 1% for the week. U.S. gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,838.70.

* Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested this week that bigger and possibly faster rate hikes will be needed to rein in inflation.

* Gold prices have fallen this week on expectations of an aggressive rate hike following Powell’s remarks, said Jigar Trivedi, an analyst at Mumbai-based Reliance Securities.

* “However, the yellow metal is enjoying strong technical support near $1,810-1,790 an ounce and we could see a rebound to $1,875 next week,” he said.

* Investors’ attention now turns to U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, due at 1:30 p.m. GMT, for fresh clues on the Fed’s tightening path. According to economists polled by Reuters, the report is expected to show an increase of 205,000 in February.

* The dollar index was down 0.1%, but was on track for a weekly gain. A stronger US currency tends to make gold a less attractive bet.

* In other precious metals, spot silver rose 0.2% to $20.12 an ounce, on track for a weekly decline of more than 5%; platinum fell 0.7% to $937.91, heading for its biggest weekly fall since November 2022; and palladium fell 1% to $1,375.13.

(Reporting by Arpan Varghese and Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Editing in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)