· Gold futures settled lower on Wednesday—bucking their typically inverse relationship to a weaker dollar—as sentiment remained cautious following a recent rally on top of expectations that the Federal Reserve could further tighten interest rates going forward.
· December gold GCZ7, -0.72% fell a buck to settle at $1,278.40 an ounce. The contract settled Tuesday at$1,279.40, its highest since June 8. Spot gold prices have climbed nearly 6% in just a month.
· September silver SIU7, -1.06% slid 3 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $16.733 an ounce. It settled at just above$16.76 an ounce Tuesday, pulling back from one-month highs hit Monday.
· A report from the ADP showed that private-sector hiring remained strong in July as employers added 178,000jobs, slightly more than expected. The ADP release is a snapshot of the job market scrutinized ahead of Friday’s widely followed nonfarm-payrolls report, though analysts note that it isn’t a solid indicator of the shape of official data.
· In the Friday report, the U.S. is expected to have added 180,000 jobs last month, keeping unemployment near a 16-year low of 4.4%, according to a MarketWatch survey. The pace of hiring in the U.S. has already slowed sharply since hitting a postrecession peak of 250,000 a month in 2015, but continues to churn ahead, so far showing few red flags for wage-induced inflation.
· Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, speaking at a banking event in Ohio, said on Wednesday the Fed is so gradual in tightening monetary policy that it will won’t have to change its stance despite fluctuations in economic and inflation data.
· However, Tuesday’s tepid car sales are contributing to fueling reservations about the economy, suggesting that the Fed may face difficulties raising rates further, according to Mark O’Byrne, research director at GoldCore Ltd.
Reference: Market Watch
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