Gold skidded lower early in New York trade on the combination of large US dollar bids and technical pressure. It's down $16 to $1934.
There's support down to last week's low of $1924 but selling picked up after the break of the 100-day moving average at $1942.
On the fundamental side, the strong US housing starts number and ongoing strength from the US consumer are starting to give gold bulls fear about higher interest rates. Fed pricing puts a July hike at 69%.
We will hear from the Fed's Williams and Barr at 11:45 am ET but the topic is "Reflections on Culture" and may be more about regulation than rates. That said, Williams is a dove and if he weighs in on rates and leans towards more hikes, it could further hurt gold.
Finally, keep an eye on yields. US 10-years are off by 4.4 bps and at a session low oat 3.72%. I wonder how much quarter-end flows (and front-running them) is a factor in today's price action.
