Gold hits 7-week peak on easing dollar, U.S. yields

Gold last traded at $1,792 an ounce. Silver at $26.50 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices lurched higher Wednesday on momentum buying and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks rose led by a rebound in cyclical stocks as equities tried to recover from two straight days of losses.

CNBC--"Gold prices scaled a more than seven-week peak on Monday as a softer dollar and lower U.S. Treasury yields lifted the yellow metal's appeal even as the appetite for riskier assets remained strong. However, later in the day prices eased from those levels.

'The fact that we managed to break above $1,765 and close above on Friday is likely to have attracted some renewed speculative buying from trend and momentum players,' Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.

'Most of these (players) are price-driven, so when the price tells them that there's a change in the outlook, they have to get involved,' while fundamentally, gold is being driven by the continued drop in bond yields, Hansen added.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields eased, reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing gold, while the dollar fell to a more than six-week low against rivals, making gold affordable for other currency holders. Bullion has dropped 6% so far this year, mostly pressured by surging U.S. yields.

Gold's gains accompanied a jump in world shares as markets were generally upbeat about the prospects for a global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic."