Gold price off lows but ETF exodus, blockbuster US job data weigh

Gold came off its earlier lows but remained weak during Friday morning trading on December 2 – the near-certainty of a US interest-rate rise this month and an exodus of ETF investors put downward pressure on the market.

The spot gold price was recently at $1,176.45/1,176.65 per oz, up $3.35 on Thursday’s close. The metal fell on Thursday to its cheapest since February this year at $1,160.80 per oz.

“Once again we see the fickleness of investors as they bail out at the lows, a lot of them having piled in near the highs,” David Govett, head of precious metals at Marex Spectron, said.

Market attention is now firmly on the US jobs report that will be released later today. Unless the non-farm payrolls number is dramatically lower that forecast, the Fed should raise interest rates for the first time in a year later this month.

The report is expected to show 177,000 new non-farming jobs were added in November. The unemployment rate is forecast at 4.9%.

“With a rate rise in a couple of weeks an almost certainty, the dollar will remain firm and gold will remain pressured, although I do think we could see a bit of book squaring in the run-up to the FOMC meeting,” Govett added.

The dollar index was steady at 100.92.

The spot silver price was unchanged at $16.54/16.580 per oz, spot palladium slipped $1 to $745/752 per oz – although it remained close to recent 17-month highs – and spot platinum at $913/923 per oz was $4 higher.

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