Mubasher: Gold prices cooled on Friday, but were on track to post their best weekly performance this year, on hopes of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and intensifying global trade disputes, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, market participants are awaiting the official US non-farm payrolls data due later in the day, as they look for hint on the direction of monetary policy.
“If we get a poor non-farm number, then the dollar would sell off and gold can regroup,” INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir was quoted by the news agency.
By 9:17 am GMT, spot gold ticked down by 0.08% to $1,333.21 per ounce, while US gold futures fell by 0.29% to $1,338.80 per ounce.
At 9:19 am GMT, the US dollar index, a tracker of the greenback against six major currencies, inched up by 0.02% to 97.07.
So far this week, the yellow metal gained 2.2%, while it is set to mark its best weekly win since late March, while the index is expected to record its weakest weekly performance since 15 March.
“Expectations that the US-Mexico tariffs may be short-lived is currently fuelling optimism in global markets,” OCBC Bank economist Howie Lee was quoted by Reuters.
Mexican and US officials held a second round of talks on trade and migration issues in Washington on Thursday.
Later on, Bloomberg News reported that the Trump administration may postpone the implementation of tariffs on all Mexican goods, lending some support to the financial markets.
“Gold is likely to stay muted through the rest of the day before the release of the non-farm payrolls, [as] investors want to see the impact on the US jobs market before reassessing the current pessimism,” OCBC Bank’s Lee said.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he would decide whether to make good on his threat to slap at least $300 billion in Chinese products after a summit of leaders of the world’s biggest economy slated for late this month.
The precious metal has already gained around $60 per ounce since Trump’s threat of tariffs on Mexican products, while latest soft US economic figures suggested raised the prospects of Fed rate cuts.
