The gold price edged lower in the Asian trading hours on Thursday with all eyes on US economic scheduled for release later today.
Spot gold was last at $1,167.7/1,168.5 per ounce, down $0.5 on Wednesday’s close. Trading has ranged from $1,167.0 to $1,168.2 so far.
The attention today is focused on the US unemployment report – the country is expected to have created 231,000 jobs this month, down from 271,000 in May.
“The data should provide some further short-to-medium term direction for the precious metals complex,” MKS noted.
Market participants will be watching for clues on the strength of the US economy and how that will affect Federal Reserve’s decision to start raising interest rates.
The members of the Fed’s policy board are locked in what has become an increasingly public debate on when will be the right time to raise rates, which have been near zero since December 2008.
At its last meeting, the Fed removed all calendar references in its forward guidance and said that recent economic weakness might be “transitory” in nature. This means that bank is now entirely dependent on data so a rate increase could happen at any future meeting.
In US data overnight, the ADP report showed 237,000 private-sector jobs were added last month against expectations of 218,000. In other US figures, the June ISM manufacturing PMI was 53.5 against a forecast 53.2.
Elsewhere, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced in a press conference on Wednesday that the June 5 referendum will proceed and encouraged Greek citizens to vote against to further austerity measures proposed by its creditors as part of a cash-for-reforms deal.
A rejection of those proposal could spell the end of Greece’s membership of the eurozone. The country declined to repay a 1.6 billion-euro-loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday.
EU finance ministers have decided to see the results of the referendum before considering a new deal.
“Despite the prevailing uncertainties on the future of Greece and its impact for the eurozone, gold still continues its downward trend,” Commerzbank noted.
As for the other precious metals, silver was unchanged at $15.55/15.59. Platinum at $1,078/1,083 fell $3, while palladium at $700/706 climbed $6.
On the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) gold for December delivery was unchanged at 236 yuan per gram.
The post Gold edges lower, watch US NFP report for cues appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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