05/10/2017 16:23 AST
Gold traded modestly higher on Thursday, with futures poised to register a second straight advance as investors watched data ahead of the key nonfarm-payrolls report on Friday.
December gold on Comex GCZ7, +0.23% was most recently up $3.60, or 0.3%, at $1,280.40. Yesterday the yellow metal, and precious metals broadly, rose despite a monthly service-sector report on Wednesday that climbed to its highest since mid-2005. The exchange traded SPDR Gold Shares GLD, -0.11% looked set to rise 0.3%. The Institute for Supply Management services index for September rose to 59.8% in September.
December silver SIZ7, +0.79% tacked on 5 cents, or 0.3%, at $16.675 an ounce, while the silver ETF iShares Silver Trust SLV, +0.38% was set to rise 0.4%.
Investors are eagerly anticipating Friday’s jobs report, which is expected to show the clearest sign of the effect of Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria on job creation for September. Average estimates of economists polled by MarketWatch are for a gain of 75,000, compared with twice that figure last month, with the unemployment rate expected to hold steady at 4.4%.
The Labor Department on Thursday reported that first-time jobless claims bell by 12,000 to 260,000 last week. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast claims to total 265,000. In other data, the U.S. trade deficit shrank 2.7% in August to an 11-month low of $42.4 billion, versus forecasts for a gap of $42.6 billion. A report on August factory orders is due at 10 a.m. Eastern, with economists expecting a gain of 1.1%.
Gold on Wednesday broke a three-day losing streak. The yellow metal has been under pressure from a strengthening U.S. dollar, which the metal is priced in, and higher government-bond yields, drawing away demand from precious metals. For the week, gold futures are looking at a decline of about 0.4%, and the metal has fallen 4.8% over the past 30 days, according to FactSet data.
Meanwhile, the dollar, as gauged by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.25% which measures greenback against a basket of six rivals, has risen 0.6% so far this week, and has climbed 1.5% in the past month.
A stronger dollar makes gold more expensive to buyers using other monetary units, and richer yields undercut the appeal of owning gold and other metals, which don’t bear a yield. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.46% held steady at 2.32% early Thursday, compared with 2.17% at the start of September.
Upbeat economic data are seen as bolstering the Federal Reserve’s case to increase rates once more in 2017.
Market Watch
Please wait...
