The gold price edged higher during Wednesday morning sessions, but the market was reluctant to make any further significant moves ahead of the blockbuster non-farm payroll data, scheduled from the US on Friday.
Spot gold was last at $1,195.70/1,196.50, an $0.80 increase on the previous day’s close as it found support fron a softer dollar after the US trade deficit, published yesterday, was the worst in six years.
“The market continues to function in a holding pattern it seems, as investors await the big US data at the end of the week to determine further dollar direction,” said MKS Capital. “The widening US trade deficit left traders worrying overnight about a further GDP contraction out of the US, which ultimately kept pressure on the dollar and helped gold run back towards $1,200.”
In currencies, the dollar softened against the euro and was last at 1.1249.
Non-Farm payroll data is expected at 227,000 but a surprise in either direction is likely to have a follow-through impact on the gold price.
In today’s data, there will Spanish and Italian, French, German and EU services PMI, plus EU retail sales. From the US, there will be ADP non-farm employment, prelim unit labor costs, prelim nonfarm productivity. The key event, however, will be the Fed Chair Janet Yellen speech later today, which the market will keep a keen eye on for signs of interest rate cuts.
“The precious metals have got some lift of late, helped by weaker treasuries/bonds and the weaker dollar, but with the gold price below $1,200 it is hardly looking that bullish. The exception is palladium that has broken higher above resistance at $788. With the potential for corrections in other markets, we feel gold may well offer a cheap haven,” FastMarkets analyst William Adams said.
Silver was little-changed at $16.53/16.58, platinum was $1 higher at $1,146/1,151 and palladiym was $6 higher at $794/799.
The post Gold price edges higher, but await non-farm for direction appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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