Following a three-day losing streak, the most-active gold futures contract turned around to bounce on Friday morning after the July jobs report shows
the U.S. economy gained just 187,000 jobs last month, slightly below the Dow Jones estimate of 200,000 and pointing to a still-solid hiring in the labor market.
Price action
-
Gold futures for December delivery
GC00,
+0.53% GCZ23,
+0.53%
rose $8.90, or 0.5%, to $1,977.80 per ounce on Comex. -
Silver futures for September delivery
SI00,
+0.20% SIU23,
+0.20%
gained 2 cents, or 0.1%, to $23.72 per ounce. -
Palladium futures for September
PAU23,
-0.91%
fell by $7.40, or 0.6%, to $1,250 per ounce, while platinum futures for October
PLV23,
+0.48%
declined by $1.80, or 0.2%, to $919.80 per ounce. -
Copper futures for September
HGU23,
-1.14%
fell by 5 cents, or 1.3%, to $3.85 per pound.
Market drivers
Gold prices were rising on Friday morning, reversing the previous three consecutive sessions of losses after the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows
the U.S. economy gained just 187,000 jobs in July, another indication that the labor market is slowly cooling off and perhaps a welcome sign as the financial markets are still debating whether the Federal Reserve will get interest-rate hikes out of the way by the end of this year.
The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 3.5% in July from 3.6% in the previous month, the government said Friday.
However, wages, a closely watched indicator of how much leverage workers are exerting in the labor market, increased 0.4% in July, stronger than the Fed would like. The increase over the past 12 months was unchanged at 4.4%.
See: U.S. adds 187,000 jobs in July and points to hiring slowdown. But wages still high
“Below consensus job growth, combined with higher average hourly earnings signals that more progress is needed to reduce the jobs-workers gap, slow wage growth, and ultimately lower inflation,” said Candice Tse, global head of strategic advisory solutions at Goldman Sachs. “The Fed has likely ended its most aggressive tightening campaign in generations, with a reasonable path to a soft landing.”
However, there is still “a wide range of possible outcomes,” with risks tilted towards additional hikes should inflation remain sticky, though not her base case, she said in emailed comments on Friday.
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