Gold ticks higher ahead of August jobs report
NEW YORK (September 1) Gold futures ticked higher early Friday as investors awaited the August jobs report.
Price action
- Gold for December delivery GC00, 0.31% GCZ23, 0.31% rose $4.70, or 0.2%, to $1,970.60 an ounce on Comex.
- December silver SIZ23, 0.82% was up 21.8 cents, or 0.9%, at $25.03 an ounce.
Market drivers
Prices for the most-active contract logged a loss of 2.2% for August, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Gold was buoyed earlier this week as the data saw investors scale back expectations for a further Fed interest rate increase, which allowed the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields to pull back. A higher dollar can make gold more expensive to users of other currencies, while higher bond yields raise the opportunity cost of holding assets that don’t produce a yield.
“If we get more evidence that the U.S. jobs market is cooling, then we could expect to see more forward progress in the gold price,” Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said in a note.
The August jobs report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to set the tone for gold and other markets Friday, with bulls looking for confirmation that a tight labor market is showing signs of cooling, which would allow the Fed to leave rates unchanged.
The U.S. is expected to add 170,000 jobs in August, down from 187,000 in the prior month, based on a poll of economists by The Wall Street Journal. In contrast, the U.S. added an average 287,000 new jobs a month in the first four months of the year.
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