The gold price was unchanged and narrowly rangebound in early morning trading in London on Thursday, with much of the market sidelined ahead of the blockbuster US jobs report on Friday.
The gold price at $1,084.80/1,085.60 per ounce was in line with its closing level on Wednesday, having been confined to an intraday range of just $4 so far. Other metals were mixed – while silver was down one cent at $14.54/14.59, platinum was up $5 at $951/956 and palladium was $8 higher at $597/602.
The platinum group metals’ gains reflect multi-month lows in oil prices – in particular, Brent crude oil has dropped below the key $50 level and was last at $49.60 per barrel, just short of the six month lows hit yesterday at $49.
But subdued volumes on the Shanghai Gold Exchange this morning appear to have set the tone for the session, with relatively low volatility in currency markets reinforcing that trend.
The dollar was last marginally stronger against the euro at 1.0887, while European stock markets are currently mixed but little changed.
Markets are set to remain quiet ahead of tomorrow’s US jobs report, which could spark some volatility in the currency markets and provide some substance to any suggestions as to when the first US interest-rate rise in nearly a decade will take place.
“Market participants are now likely to be focusing their attention on tomorrow’s publication of the official US labour market statistics. Above all, the data are relevant in terms of indicating when the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates,” Commerzbank said in a note.
US non-farm payrolls are expected at 220,000, following 223,000 preciously, and growth in average hourly earnings at 0.2 percent and the unemployment rate at 5.3 percent.
In a precursor to that report on Wednesday, the ADP non-farm employment change at 185,000 came in well short of forecasts of 216,000.
In data, the US is still to announce its weekly unemployment claims. The UK bank will release its monthly rate decision, the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting and the monthly inflation report at the same time instead of the usual two-week gap.
Earlier, Japan’s leading indicators were slightly stronger and German factory orders climbed 2.0 percent, which was up strongly from expectations for a 0.4-percent rise.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)
The post Precious metals tightly bound ahead of Friday’s US jobs report appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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