Investing.com - Gold prices were flat on Friday in Asia but is on track to log a seventh straight week of gains.
Gold futures for August delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange were unchanged at $1,420.90 a troy ounce by 12:09 AM ET (04:09 GMT).
All eyes are now on U.S. non-farm payroll, which are expected to have jumped by 160,000 in June compared with 75,000 in May. The data is due later in the day.
On Wednesday, a report from ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) and Moody’s Analytics showed private payrolls rising by 102,000 in June.
Weaker-than-expected figure from the jobs report could raise expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates at its upcoming monetary policy meeting on July 30 and 31.
U.S. markets were closed overnight for a public holiday.
Gold prices were bolstered this week by U.S. President Donald Trump’s nomination of two dovish candidates for the Federal Reserve.
An unexpected announcement that IMF chair Christine Lagarde is nominated as the head of the European Central Bank also sent the yellow metal higher.
Markets took the news to mean that the way is cleared for both the Fed and the ECB to comply with expectations that the central banks will move forward with policy easing.