The price of gold futures barely moved. under pressure from the appreciation of the dollar which will reduce the attractiveness of gold By making gold contracts more expensive for holders of other currencies.
The market is also affected by expectations that The Federal Reserve (Fed) will continue to raise interest rates. Although the US released the slowdown in non-farm payrolls tonight.
At 7:32 p.m. Thai time, the COMEX (Commodity Exchange) gold contract is delivered in February. plus $ 0.30 or 0.02% to $ 1,840.90 / ounce
the market expects The U.S. Department of Labor will release only 200,000 jobs in December. After adding 263,000 jobs in November And the unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 3.7%.
If the employment numbers come out as the market expected. It will make the US employ almost 5 million jobs in 2022, which will be the second highest after 6.7 million jobs in 2021 after a record 9.3 million jobs collapsed in 2020, which was affected by The spread of COVID-19
“The Fed wants to see 100,000 average monthly jobs or less. This is in line with slowing labor market conditions,” said Indeed Hiring Lab Director of Research Nick Bunker.
The US will release non-farm payrolls numbers later tonight. after revealing unemployment numbers lower than expected and higher than expected private employment numbers yesterday
The Labor Department reported initial claims for unemployment benefits fell 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 204,000 last week. which is the lowest level since September And below analysts’ expectations of 225,000.
The number of Americans still claiming unemployment benefits fell 24,000 to 1.694 million.
Meanwhile, Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) said private sector employment rose 235,000 in December. This was above analysts’ expectations of 153,000 jobs from 127,000 in November.
Services added 213,000 jobs in December. While the manufacturing sector added 22,000 jobs.
Investors raised expectations that the Fed will raise interest rates by 0.50% in February, the Fed’s first monetary policy meeting this year. After the release of data indicating a strong labor market yesterday.