Spot gold slipped in Asia on Monday, pressured by the dollar's rise against the euro after upbeat US jobs data, but losses were modest as South African gold miners launched their first industry-wide strike in 18 years.
Gold was quoted at $437.15/65 an ounce, against $437.60/438.30 in late New York on Friday, after moving between $436.25 and $437.65 on a bid basis in morning trade.
"The strong US payrolls report has lifted the dollar against the euro, which is negative for gold," said Tatsuo Kageyama, analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management.
The US economy added 207,000 new jobs in July, above forecasts of 183,000, while the unemployment rate held steady at the nearly four-year low of 5 percent reached in June.
Traders expect the data will allow the US Federal Reserve to continue it's measured pace of interest rate rises. The Fed will meet on Tuesday and another 25 basis point increase to 3.5 percent is widely expected.
The Fed has raised its funds rate nine straight times since June 2004. A stronger US currency tends to make dollar-priced gold less attractive to non-US investors, and weakens bullion's appeal as a safe asset.
Despite pressure from a firm dollar, gold was unlikely to sustain heavy losses this week, gaining support from mineworkers' strike in South Africa, a record-breaking rally in oil prices and geopolitical risks in the Middle East, Kageyama said.
Gold also looked buoyant, as commodity funds were ready for fresh buys after lightening their long positions in the past month, he added.
The latest weekly Commitments of Traders data issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed the net speculative long position in Comex gold fell to 49,022 lots as of July 26, from 54,111 contracts as of July 19.
It was a 62 percent drop from the hefty 129,931 lots of net long positions as of June 28.
South African gold miners started their first industry-wide strike in 18 years on Sunday, demanding higher wages in the world's biggest bullion producer, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the country's main mining union, said.
South Africa's gold industry accounts for around 15 percent of global output, and the mining sector contributes about 8 percent to the nation's gross domestic product.
A strike would lead to the loss of around 28,000 ounces of gold production and 79 million rand ($12.21 million) in lost revenue per day, a Deutsche Securities analyst has estimated.
The strike would paralyse the South African mines of the world's No 2 gold producer, AngloGold Aslant, fourth-ranked Gold Fields, sixth-placed Harmony Gold and South Deep, a joint venture of South Africa's Western Areas and Canada's Placer Dome.
On Monday, US light crude oil futures struck an all-time high on worries that a series of US refinery outages could put a strain on oil product supplies as gasoline demand peaks.
Traders were also concerned about geopolitical risks in the Middle East. On Sunday, the US embassy in Saudi Arabia said it was closing all diplomatic missions in the kingdom on Monday and Tuesday due to a threat against US buildings.
In the currency market, the dollar bought around 112.40 yen, up 0.4 percent from the level in late US trade on Friday. The euro was down slightly at $1.2340, slipping from a two-month high of $1.2403 marked on Thursday.
The yen weakened broadly as Japan's parliament appeared increasingly likely to vote down postal reform bills that could prompt Prime Minister Janitor Koizumi to call a snap election.
The weaker yen lifted the benchmark gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange to a fresh 13-year high. TOCOM's key June gold contract rose as high as 1,587 yen per gram during the session on Monday, the highest since December 1991.
It was up seven yen at 1,584 yen. Silver stood at $7.12/7.14 an ounce little changed from $7.12/7.15 in New York on Friday. Platinum was at $903/908 an ounce, against $908/911 in late New York. Sister metal palladium was at $188/193 an ounce from $190/$195.
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