By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was down on Wednesday morning in Asia, continuing its decline for a fifth consecutive day. The safe-haven yellow metal is headed for its longest period of decline in almost a year, thanks to Treasury yields surging over expectations of a quick global economic recovery from COVID-19.

were down 0.53% at $1,789.40 by 8:38 PM ET (1:38 AM GMT), falling below the $1,800 mark. Should prices end lower on Wednesday, it would be gold’s worst run since March 2020, following its 1.3% drop on Tuesday.

Investors are more optimistic about a global recovery from COVID-19. Countries continue to make progress on vaccine rollouts and the , with the increased optimism leading to a more than 5% drop in gold so far in 2021. Further losses are potentially around the corner, with gold’s 50-day moving average now in a death cross pattern after retreating below its 200-day counterpart.

“A runaway rally in global bond yields has delivered a fatal blow to gold … yields are rising on reflation bets, and that is triggering an unwind of many safe-haven trades,” Oanda Corp. senior market analyst Edward Moya told Bloomberg.

Oher precious metals, including silver, palladium and platinum, were also down alongside gold on Wednesday. Platinum, for its part, hit the highest intraday level since 2014 on Tuesday.

The , which normally moves inversely to gold, edged up on Wednesday.

“The dollar rebound might not be over if global bond yields continue to rally … and that could be the bearish catalyst that sends gold down to the $1,750 level,” said Oanda’s Moya.