Investing.com - Gold prices held steady near a one-week high during North American hours on Monday, as trade volumes were expected to remain light with many investors in the U.S. away for the Labor Day holiday.
Gold for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange tacked on $1.15, or 0.09%, to trade at $1,329.25 a troy ounce by 9:38AM ET (13:38GMT).
Trading in gold and other metals ends at 1:00PM ET, while U.S. stock markets are closed for trading all day.
On Friday, gold rallied to a one-week peak of $1,334.00 as disappointing U.S. employment data diminished the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its policy meeting later this month.
The U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in August, disappointing expectations for an increase of 180,000 and slowing from the 275,000 positions created in July, the Labor Department said Friday.
The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9% this month, confounding expectations for a downtick to 4.8%, while average hourly earnings rose 0.1%, below expectations for a 0.2% increase.
While the disappointing data dampened expectations for a near-term rate hike, investors still believe the Fed will hike rates at least once before the end of the year, most likely in December.
According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, investors are pricing in a 27% chance of a rate hike at the Fed's September 20-21 meeting. December odds were at around 59%.
The precious metal is sensitive to moves in U.S. rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar in which it is priced.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was at 95.80 early Monday, keeping distance from a one-week low of 95.18 set on Friday just after the U.S. payrolls data.
A report on U.S. service sector growth on Tuesday will be the highlight of the holiday-shortened week, as Fed officials recently indicated that the pace of interest rate increases will be data-dependent.
Besides the services PMI, the shortened week could be a relatively quiet one with Wednesday's Fed Beige Book release and JOLTS jobs turnover data also in focus.