Spot Gold firmed on Friday and looked set for a second consecutive weekly advance, with market focus setting on the key US Non-Farm Payrolls report, which may provide more clues on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate trajectory.
Employers in all sectors of the US economy, excluding farming, probably added 190,000 job positions in June, according to market consensus, following a job growth of 272,000 in May.
Also, the US unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 4% in June, or the highest level since January 2022.
“If the jobs data misses the mark on the lower side, I expect investors will start to further fancy a possible September rate cut from the Fed, which could see gold have another crack at the $2,400 level,” Tim Waterer, KCM Trade’s chief market analyst, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Markets are now pricing in about a 73% chance of a Fed rate cut occurring in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Lower interest rates reduce the opportunity cost of holding Gold, which pays no interest.
As of 7:03 GMT on Friday Spot Gold was edging up 0.25% to trade at $2,363.11 per troy ounce.
The commodity was set to register a 1.60% weekly gain.
Gold Futures for delivery in August were up 0.27% on the day to trade at $2,371.80 per troy ounce.
Elsewhere, Silver Futures for delivery in September were gaining 0.68% to trade at $30.898 per troy ounce.
The US Dollar Index, which reflects the relative strength of the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, was edging down 0.12% to 104.997 on Friday.
TradingPedia.com is a financial media specialized in providing daily news and education covering Forex, equities and commodities. Our academies for traders cover 
