The Australian dollar held steady against its US counterpart on Monday, while the New Zealand dollar moved lower after data showed that China’s imports dropped far more than expected last month and as the greenback remained supported by Friday’s strong U.S.jobs data.
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Spot gold had slipped 0.1 percent at $1,333.80 an ounce by 0055 GMT.
The precious metal sustained its largest one-day loss since late May on Friday, following the announcement that the USA added 255,000 jobs in July that also boosted. The jobless rate held at 4.9 percent as numerous people streaming into the workforce found jobs. They were up 2.6% on the year.
Traders and top Wall Street banks expect the Fed to raise USA interest rates in 2016 after a strong July jobs report.
“More upbeat news for gold is on the Chinese front as well, where data has shown that China has increased its gold reserve”, said Aslam, up to $78.89 billion from its previous number of $77.43 billion. December odds were at around 44%, up from 33% ahead of the report. It was at 96.27 early Monday.
“I have been bullish on gold in non-U.S. dollar terms for years now”, Dennis Gartman, Founder, Editor & Publisher of The Gartman Letter told CNBC on Monday.
Gold is highly sensitive to rising rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
The yellow metal flirted with a more than two-year high above the $1,370-level less than a week ago as a string of disappointing USA economic data prompted market players to push back expectations for the next US rate hike. A gradual path to higher rates is seen as less of a threat to gold prices than a swift series of increases.
Among other precious metals, silver was up 1 percent at $19.85 an ounce after hitting a near two-week low at $19.56.
Exports slumped 4.4% from a year earlier, worse than forecasts for a decline of 3.0%, whileimports dropped 12.5%, compared to expectations for a fall of 7.0%.
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China is the world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for almost 45% of world consumption.
