The most active gold contract for December delivery fell 7.9 USA dollars, or 0.58 percent, to settle at 1,364.7 dollars per ounce. Bullion ended up 0.2 percent at $1,360.80 on Thursday and has risen 0.7 percent so far this week.
Advertisement
Gold priced in non-US currencies held firmer on Friday, gaining 0.5% for the week against the Euro and adding 1% from last weekend for United Kingdom investors after the Bank of England cut its key interest rate to a new all-time historic low and unveiled up to £170 billion ($220bn) of new quantitative easing money-creation and asset purchases.
In China, bullion of 99.99 percent purity was 1 percent higher at 291.86 yuan a gram ($1,365.84 an ounce) on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
People are just waiting for cues on interest rate hike, especially from Friday’s nonfarm payrolls data, said Ronald Leung, chief dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.
Economists polled by Reuters are looking for United States nonfarm employment to have risen by 180,000 in July, while the unemployment rate is forecast to edge down to 4.8 per cent from June’s 4.9 per cent. Higher rates tend to hurt gold, since the metal pays its holders nothing and struggles to compete with yield-bearing assets when borrowing costs rise.
The figures came ahead of official job-creation figures for July, due on Friday.
Data this week showed that US private employers added 179,000 jobs in July, above economists’ expectations, while the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, while renewed job cuts in the energy sector boosted layoffs announced by USA -based employers in July.
Spot gold may retest a resistance at $1,368 per ounce, as it has approached this barrier again, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
“There’s a lot of money in the market (after BoE easing)”.
“Can an endless investor bid drive gold materially north of recent highs of around $1365/oz?” said the bank. It was down 0.7 per cent at $699.25.
Among other precious metals, spot palladium was down 0.3 percent at $701.80 an ounce.
Silver meantime tracked and extended the drop in gold prices, losing 2% from last Friday’s finish to trade below $20 per ounce for the first time in over a week.
Advertisement
Skittish global investors may be reassured by fairly steady growth expected in a flurry of Chinese data in coming weeks, but tepid demand, slowing investment and rising debt levels remain pressing concerns for the world’s second-largest economy.
