NEW YORK: Gold prices slid 1% on Thursday as the US dollar firmed ahead of a key jobs report and investors booked profits, after bullion recorded consecutive record peaks in the previous five sessions on the back of escalating trade tensions between US and China.
Spot gold slipped 1% to $2,835.31 per ounce by 10:09 a.m. ET (1509 GMT) after hitting an all-time high of $2,882.16 on Wednesday. US gold futures dropped 1.3% to $2,856.30.
“There’s probably a combination of a stronger dollar, some profit taking and yields moving a little bit higher off their lows,” weighing on gold ahead of the US employment report, said Daniel Pavilonis, senior market strategist at RJO Futures. Nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 170,000 jobs after surging to 256,000 in December, a Reuters survey of economists showed. The unemployment rate is forecast unchanged at 4.1%.
A resilient labor market is fuelling economic growth and allowing the Federal Reserve to halt interest rate cuts as it evaluates the inflationary effects of Trump’s fiscal, trade, and immigration policies. “In addition to the volatility in general, we still have inflation in the background that’s starting to creep up, so gold is responding as a safe haven,” said Alex Ebkarian, chief operating officer at Allegiance Gold.
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