· Gold steadied on Friday, paring earlier gains as bets the US Federal Reserve would cut interest rates aggressively this year were tempered after better-than-expected US jobs data, but bullion was still on track for a weekly gain.
· Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent at $US1,506.76 per ounce on Friday. Prices are still on track for a weekly gain of about 0.7 per cent.
US gold futures settled down 0.1 per cent at $US1,512.90.
· US job growth increased modestly in September, with the unemployment rate dropping to near a 50-year low of 3.5 per cent, assuaging concerns the slowing economy was on the brink of a recession.
· "There were expectations that we might see the biggest decline in jobs number in years and that did not happen. Gold is counting on the Fed cutting more interest rates," said Jeffrey Sica, founder of Circle Squared Alternative Investments.
"Considering how dismal the other economic numbers were, this jobs report was fairly acceptable. Yesterday, we saw a real strong sentiment towards the Fed lowering interest rates because of the economic weakness and this (jobs data) might have the reverse effect."
· US short-term interest rate futures traders on Friday pared bets the Fed would cut rates at both of its two upcoming meetings.
· "The Fed is still expected to cut at least once more this year, but the December meeting remains a toss-up. The economy is not falling off a cliff and gold could see some softness, but the overall bullish trend should remain intact," Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note.
· Gold had risen to a one-week high of $US1,518.50 per ounce in the previous session.
· Persistent weakness in global economic indicators against the backdrop of the US-China trade conflict has led to a 17 per cent rise in bullion prices so far this year.
· Investors will be closely watching the US-China trade talks, which resume this week.
· On Friday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the US team was "open-minded" about the outcome of US-China trade talks.
· "For gold now there is more of a concern that the trade war is going to get considerably more worse.
We made absolutely no progress and investors are losing confidence in US and China making a deal," Sica said.
"As result of that, investors are buying gold in anticipation of more chaos."
· Elsewhere, platinum fell 0.9 per cent to $US882.26 an ounce and was down more than 5.0 per cent for the week, on track for its biggest weekly decline since May.
· Silver was steady at $US17.56 and palladium climbed 1.0 per cent to $US1,669.25.
Reference: Business News
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