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Gold down ahead of big jobs report

Xinhua, October 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell on Thursday as traders prepared for the release of the big jobs report on Friday.

The most active gold contract for December delivery fell 15.6 U.S. dollars, or 1.23 percent, to settle at 1,253 dollars per ounce.

Traders are eagerly awaiting the jobs report for the month of September on Friday, and have noted that the weekly jobless claims report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday showed new claims during the week of October first falling by 5,000 to a 249,000 level, both of which were better-than-expected.

Investors believe that the worse-than-expected Automated Data Processing employment report has been outweighed by the positive new from this report and the Institute for Supply Management report released on Wednesday.

Analysts note that although the precious metal is decreasing because of improved jobs data, they also believe that investors are acutely aware of both the category four hurricane along the Florida coast, and of the second U.S. presidential debate on Sunday. These two events combined have the possibility of destabilizing U.S. equities and sending investors to gold as a safe haven.

The U.S. Dollar Index rose by 0.5 percent to 96.65 as of 1830 GMT. The index is a measure of the dollar against a basket of major currencies. Gold and the dollar typically move in opposite directions, which means if the dollar goes up, gold futures will fall as gold, measured by the dollar, becomes more expensive for investors.

Silver for December delivery dropped 35 cents, or 1.98 percent, to close at 17.345 dollars per ounce. Platinum for 2017 January delivery fell 10.3 dollars, or 1.05 percent, to close at 966.3 dollars per ounce. Endit