Gold Prices Ease In Asia As Markets Await Nonfarm Payrolls

Investing.com – Gold prices edged weaker in Asia on Friday with markets cautious ahead of nonfarm payrolls later in the day.

for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 0.01% to $1277.97 a troy ounce.

Overnight, gold prices were roughly unchanged on Thursday supported by dollar weakness as investors looked ahead to President Donald Trump’s choice of nominee to head the Federal Reserve.

Gold prices remained on track to snap a two-week losing streak amid dollar weakness despite upbeat labor market data lifting expectation for a bullish nonfarm payrolls report due Friday.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 for the week ended Oct. 28, a steeper drop than economist had expected.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said that nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose at a 3% annualized rate, outpacing economists’ forecasts of 2.4%.

The data comes amid speculation that President Donald Trump is set to nominate Fed governor Jerome Powell to lead the Federal Reserve in early February. Trump is expected announce his nominee for Fed chair at 3 p.m. ET.

Powell, a Republican, was appointed to the Fed’s board of governors in 2012 by President Barack Obama. He was confirmed for a full term in 2014.

The gradual path of monetary policy is not expected to change should Powell get the nod for the Fed’s top post as the governor shares a similar stance to current Fed chair Janet Yellen on monetary policy.

Gold prices are sensitive to moves higher in interest rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion.

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