
Please try another search
By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia, eking out small gains as the dollar weakened. Investors now await the latest U.S. jobs report to gauge the Federal Reserve’s timeline on asset purchases and interest rate hikes.
Gold futures inched up 0.08% to $1,812.95 by 1:13 AM ET (5:13 AM GMT) but was headed towards its first weekly decline in four. The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched up on Friday but remained near a one-month low.
The jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, is due later in the day. It will be a focal point for investors as labor market recovery is one of the Fed’s requirements before it begins asset tapering and interest rate hikes.
Ahead of the report’s release, data released on Thursday showed that Americans filed 340,000 initial jobless claims during the past week. The number was lower than the 345,000 claims in forecasts prepared by Investing.com and the 354,000 claims filed during the previous week.
The data also said that layoffs dropped to their lowest level in more than 24 years in August, suggesting that the labor market recovery was holding strong even as the number of COVID-19 cases continues on an upward trend both in the U.S. and globally.
In Asia Pacific, China’s Caixin services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for August was 46.7, below the 50-mark indicating growth.
Meanwhile, SPDR Gold Trust (P:GLD) said its holdings fell 0.2% to 998.52 tons on Thursday, its lowest level since April 2020. Russia also said its international gold and foreign currency reserves rose to a record $615.6 billion after receiving a tranche from the International Monetary Fund.
In other precious metals, silver edged up 0.2%, platinum inched up 0.1% and palladium was up 0.3%.
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.