• The XAG/USD dropped more than 1% on Thursday below the $25.00 mark.
• US Jobless Claims in the second week of July came in lower than expected.
• Rising US Treasury yields weight on the precious metals.

The XAG/USD Silver spot price dropped towards the $24.80 area, recording 1.28% losses on Thursday amid a recovery of the USD. Despite weak Manufacturing and Housing data, lower-than-expected Jobless Claims fueled a rise in hawkish bets on the Federal Reserve (Fed)  and  US Treasury yields, making the grey metal lose interest.

Investors assess US data ahead of next week's Fed’s decision

The US reported mid-tier data. On the negative side, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Manufacturing survey showed worrying results as its index declined more than expected, coming in at -13 vs the consensus of -10. In addition, following Wednesday’s soft Housing data, Existing sales from the US from June also showed weakness. The figure showed a contraction of 3.3% MoM in June with a 4.16M decrease.

However, investors seem to be weighing more Jobless Claims data. For the week ending on July 14, the number of people filing for unemployment benefits came in lower than the market consensus at 228,000 vs 242,000 expected and below the previous figure of 237,000. It fueled a rise in US Treasury yields on Federal Reserve hawkish bets. The 2-year yield rose to 4.88% while the 5 and 10-year rates jumped to 4.10% and 3.84%, with all three displaying strong increases of more than 1.50%. As bond yields could be seen as the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding metals, Silver prices are retreating