The gold price inched higher during Asian trading hours on Monday as demand picked up after Chinese markets reopened on Monday following holidays on September 3-5.
Spot gold was last at $1,123.9/1,124.2 per ounce, up $2.2 on Friday’s close. Trading ranged from $1,118-1,125 so far.
“With Chinese participants back this week, you would expect some buying, especially in the teens or low 1,120s,” said MKS Group in a Monday morning note.
The spot gold price had slipped close to its lowest in around one week during the UK trading session last Friday after the release of a mixed US labour report.
US non-farm payroll employment had increased by 173,000 in August, below the 215,000 forecast, but the unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent from 5.2 percent in the prior month.
Even though the headline number undershot expectations, there were several positives in the report. The June total was revised to 245,000 from 231,000 and the change for July was revised to 245,000 from 215,000. With these revisions, employment gains in June and July combined were 44,000 more than previously reported.
Opinions remained mixed on whether there will be an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve later this month.
“The Fed’s decision of whether to hike or not is not really about the labour market. Instead, the main questions are the outlook for inflation, the impact of tighter financial conditions (through US dollar strength), and the state of the global economy. Financial market unrest obviously adds to the uncertainty and debate,” said ANZ Research in a Monday morning note.
In equities, Chinese stock markets were off to a volatile start on Monday. The Shanghai composite index had rallied and reversed a brief negative open earlier in the morning, but the rally has since fizzled to take the index to 3,168.595, which is up just 0.27 percent.
In other precious metals, silver was up $0.07 to $1458/14.63 per ounce recently. Platinum was last at $988/993, up $4, while palladium rose $8.5 to $577/582 so far on Monday morning.
On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, gold for December delivery was unmoved at 233.05 yuan per gram, while December silver was flat at 3,331 yuan per kilogram recently on Monday morning.
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