Gold pulls back after brief run to $2,000 on U.S. banking woes

April 26(Reuters) – Gold eased back on Wednesday as yields recovered with the focus returning to upcoming economic data, after briefly breaking above $2,000 spurred by fresh worries surrounding the U.S. banking turmoil.

Spot gold fell 0.6% to $1,985.80 per ounce by 12:25 p.m. EDT (16:25 GMT) after jumping as high as $2,009.32 earlier. U.S. gold futures slipped 0.4% to $1,996.20.

First Republic Bank’s (FRC.N) shares hit a record low after a report said the U.S. government was unwilling to intervene in the rescue process for the troubled lender.

“That was the catalyst for gold prices to revisit slightly higher levels,” said Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities.

But overall, trend-following algorithms have effectively reached their maximum long positions, Ghali added.

Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields recovered from a near two-week low, raising the opportunity cost of holding zero-yield bullion.

Gold declined despite the dollar shedding 0.4%, while investors also took stock of upbeat risk sentiment driven by strong earnings.

Traders were now focused on U.S. quarterly GDP data due on Thursday, followed by the core personal consumption expenditures index on Friday, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.

Markets had priced in about a 3-in-4 chance of the U.S. central bank raising rates by 25 basis points at its May 2-3 meeting.

Those odds were lower due to “resurgent fears that there’s always more than one cockroach when it comes to the U.S. regional banking crisis,” Ghalli said.

Safe-haven gold scaled an over one-year peak at $2,048.71 mid-April as the U.S. banking crisis unfolded.

“Retail, discretionary traders and the like remain very underexposed, a source of dry powder, especially if the market ramps up rate cut expectations,” said Paul Wong, market strategist at Sprott Asset Management.

Silver was down about 1% to $24.8 an ounce, platinum gained 0.2% to $1,088.50 and palladium rose 1.9% to $1,511.23.

Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.