Investing.com – Gold dipped on Thursday, pressured by a rebound in the dollar, after a surge in number of private sector jobs the U.S. economy created last month, set an upbeat tone ahead of Friday’s closely watched monthly jobs report.
Gold futures for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $5.42 or 0.43%, to $1,266.57 a troy ounce by 13:59 EDT.
Private employers added 253,000 jobs in May, according to payroll processor ADP, well above Wall Street expectations of a 185,000 rise.
In separate report, U.S. manufacturing activity ticked higher, hitting 53.5 in May, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Thursday. Economists had expected a rise to 52.8.
A reading above 50 indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 indicates that it is generally contracting.
Meanwhile, spending in the construction sector fell 1.4% for the month, the biggest drop in a year, and below forecasts of a 0.2% decline.
The private sector jobs report comes a day ahead of a key nonfarm payrolls report expected to show that the U.S. economy created 185,000 jobs last month. It is the final nonfarm payrolls report before the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets in June.
According to investing.com’s Fed rate monitor tool nearly 90% of traders expect the Fed to hike its benchmark rate in June from 0.75-1% to 1-1.25%.
Rising expectations of a June rate hike pushed the dollar and U.S. treasury yields to session highs, which weighed on the precious metal.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose by 0.28% to 97.15, while the U.S. 10-Year rose 1.17% to 2.224.
Gold is sensitive to moves higher in both bond yields and the U.S. dollar – A stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for holders of foreign currency while a rise in U.S. rates, lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion.
In other precious metals, silver futures fell 0.79% to $17.269 a troy ounce while platinum futures lost 1.87% to trade at $932.50.
Copper added 0.27% to $2.587, while natural gas dipped by 1.86% to $3.013.