Gold sways while investors pay attention to US job data

3 Nov 2023 , 09:36 AM

Early Asian hours on Friday saw no movement in gold prices as traders anticipated further hints about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path from the U.S. October non-farm payrolls report later in the day.

Spot gold was virtually unchanged at $1,985.09 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were little moved at $1,992.40.

This week, bullion has lost 1% of its value after three weeks of weekly rises. Amidst escalating turbulence in the Middle East, prices surged past the crucial $2,000 per ounce mark last week due to demand for safe haven assets.

Wednesday’s rate decision by the Fed was consistent with what the market had anticipated. Thursday saw a decline in the dollar and Treasury yields as investors increased their bets that the US Federal Reserve may be done raising interest rates.

The market will now be watching the U.S. non-farm payrolls data, which is anticipated to reveal that businesses added 180,000 jobs last month. The data is scheduled at 12:30 GMT.

On Thursday, data revealed how many Americans there are.

In the meantime, data revealed that October private payroll growth in the United States was less than anticipated, and September JOLTS job vacancies were 9.55 million, compared to 9.25 million projected.

The CME FedWatch tool indicates that markets are putting in about an 80% possibility that the Fed will maintain current rates in December.

Keeping gold has a higher opportunity cost when interest rates are higher.

Spot silver decreased by 0.3% to $22.68 per ounce, while palladium increased by 1.5% to $1,116.57 and platinum increased by 0.1% to $921.02.

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