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Gold futures on Friday morning were edging lower ahead of the monthly report on the state of the U.S. labor market, a day after gold posted the largest one-day gain in more than two years.
Values for bullion, which breached the round-number price of $1,800, were headed for their best weekly gain in about three weeks, as the U.S. dollar cooled and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted at a less-aggressive path to increasing interest rates in the central bank’s battle against inflation.
Price action
-
Price of gold for February delivery
GC00,
-1.13% GCG23,
-1.13%
shed $3.20, or 0.2%, to $1,812 per ounce on Comex. -
Silver for delivery in March
SIH23,
-1.30%
rose 5 cents, or 0.2%, to $22.89 per ounce. -
March palladium
PAH23,
-3.61%
fell $20, or 1%, to $1,926 per ounce, while platinum prices for delivery in January
PLF23,
-3.62%
were down $16, or 1.5%, to $1,038 per ounce. -
Copper prices for March delivery
HGH23,
-1.49%
fell 1 cent, or 0.3%, to $3.81 per ounce.
Market drivers
The relatively muted action in metals on Friday comes as investors await the Labor Department’s monthly update on jobs, which is expected by economists to show that 200,000 new jobs were created in November. That would mark the weakest showing in nearly two years and perhaps lend some support to believe that the Fed is on its way to cooling the economy as it tries to suppress inflation by hiking interest rates and unwinding its balance sheet.
“Today brings the latest jobs data out of the U.S. and after yesterday’s huge gains, gold and indeed markets more broadly are fairly static awaiting these employment figures,” wrote Rupert Rowling, a market analyst at Kinesis Money.
Earlier in the week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the central bank may decide to raise interest rates at a slower pace at its next policy meeting. Treasurys rallied, pulling down yields, while the dollar
DXY,
retreated.
Lower bond yields decrease the opportunity cost of holding nonyielding assets like gold, while a softer dollar makes many commodity prices, which are often priced in dollars, less expensive to buyers using other currencies.
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