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A strong payrolls number could prompt the Fed to raise rates sooner than later, hurting non-interest paying gold. The metal has rallied nearly 21 percent this year on expectations that the Fed will slow the pace of rate hikes.
"If the jobs data is bad, gold will go up... But there is one more set of jobs data before the next Fed meeting in June," said Helen Lau, an analyst at Argonaut Securities in Hong Kong.
"Gold's outlook will be very data dependent. Right now, it is the currency trade and hawkish comments from Fed officials that are weighing on it," she said.
The dollar rose to a one-week high against a basket of major currencies on Thursday after sliding to a 15-month low this week as traders closed out profitable bets against the greenback before the payrolls report.
What happen in asset prices when NFP beats or misses 25K-75K?
A rebound in international gold prices in the first quarter of 2016 has motivated Chinese gold producers to raise their output to 111.563 mt (3.59 million oz) over January-March, inching up 0.78% from a year earlier, the China Gold Association said Wednesday.
Production from gold mines accounted for 78.8% of China's total in the March quarter at 87.93 mt, edging 0.38% lower than the same 2015 period.
Gold produced as a by-product of base metals exploitation during the comparison periods grew 5.32% to 23.632 mt.
The country's major gold producers, such as China National Gold Group Corporation, Hunan Gold Group and Yunnan Gold, have reported double-digit growth in first-quarter mined gold production, the industry association said in a statement.
Gold prices have risen to a recent high of $1,282/oz during the quarter, up 20.6% from a quarterly low of $1,063/oz in January, it noted.
But the association anticipates wide fluctuations in gold prices in the near future as the US economy recovers and the Federal Reserve pushes ahead with its plan of hiking interest rate.
Reference: PLATTS, CNBC, Reuters
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