How is the dollar affecting gold?

“Gold prices advanced on Tuesday as a surprise announcement from the Bank of Japan helped to weigh on the dollar, helping to bolster precious metals prices.

The dollar's weakness in the wake of the BoJ's decision to loosen its grip on its domestic bond market has commingled with anxieties about a looming recession to push gold prices back toward their highest levels in more than five weeks, one market strategist said.

"Whilst the weaker dollar is certainly helping, gold's rebound comes alongside the uptick in bond yields, suggesting that investors are getting gloomier about the outlook on fears that the Fed and other central banks are overtightening," said Raffi Boyadjian, lead investment analyst at XM, in a Tuesday morning note.

After resisting the global trend of more hawkish monetary policy all year, the BoJ shocked global investors by announcing on Tuesday that it would loosen its policy of tightly controlling yields on government bonds, an announcement that sent the Japanese yen and government bond yields surging.

BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda cited a desire to improve the functioning of Japan's bond markets during a Tuesday press conference explaining the decision.

The yen advanced more than 3% against the dollar, helping to push the ICE U.S. Dollar Index down by 0.4% to 104.33.”