2020.08.1419:29:00UTC+00Gold Prices Continue To Slide

Gold prices skidded on Friday and headed for a weekly loss in the wake of a firmer dollar and rising U.S. yields following tepid demand in a long-dated U.S. government bond auction on Thursday.

Spot gold dropped $19 or 0.98 percent to $1,941.00 an ounce and headed for a weekly loss of about 4 percent, marking its first weekly fall since early June and its biggest weekly percentage fall since early March.

The dollar steadied today as upbeat figures on U.S. employment and lackluster economic data from China put the brakes on a selldown of the world's reserve currency.

Official data showed today that China's industrial production grew 4.8 percent on a yearly basis in July, the same rate of growth as seen in June and weaker than the expected rise of 5.1 percent.

Retail sales dropped 1.1 percent from last year, confounding expectations for an increase of 0.1 percent.

During January to July period, fixed asset investment decreased 1.6 percent versus a 3.1 percent decrease in January to June.

Elsewhere, the euro area economy contracted at a record pace in the second quarter, as initially estimated, due to the containment measures taken by member countries to control the spread of the coronavirus, flash estimate from Eurostat showed.

Gross domestic product fell 12.1 percent sequentially in the second quarter, following a 3.6 percent drop in the first quarter. This was the sharpest decline seen since the series began in 1995.

Year-on-year, GDP was down 15 percent versus a 3.1 percent decline a quarter ago. This was also the sharpest decrease since 1995.