Gold Down Amid Bearish Outside Markets; U.S. Jobs Report on Deck

Author: Paul Ploumis 08 May 2015 Last updated at 03:37:59 GMT

(Kitco News) - Gold prices ended the U.S. day session moderately lower Thursday. A firmer U.S. dollar index and lower crude oil prices on this day worked against the precious metals market bulls. Traders and investors are now squarely focused on Friday morning’s U.S. jobs report, which is arguably the most important U.S. economic data of the month. June Comex gold was last down $8.20 at $1,182.20 an ounce. July Comex silver was last down $0.186 at $16.32 an ounce.

The key non-farm payrolls number in Friday’s employment report from the U.S. Labor Department is forecast to come in at up 220,000. However, a lower-than-expected number in Wednesday’s ADP national employment report (up 169,000) has many looking for a miss to the downside in Friday’s jobs number. Look for Friday morning to be the most active trading period of the week, in the wake of the jobs data.

U.S. and European bond yields have been on the rise recently (lower prices). This comes despite some keener uncertainty about the U.S. economy and the European Union’s concern about Greece repaying its debt obligations. This situation is at least a bit odd and it could be an early signal of a major shifting of trader and investor sentiments that have been place for many years—sentiments that have been mostly driven by policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank. The most obvious shift, as evidenced by rising bond yields, is one of less concern about price deflation and the onset of some price inflationary pressures. This scenario is a bullish one for the raw commodity sector.

The London P.M. fix is $1,187.00 versus the previous A.M. fixing of $1,183.00.

Courtesy: Kitco News