Gold climbs for second straight day, dollar flat

Gold futures tilted higher in Asian trade as the dollar index traded mostly flat for the day, ahead of highly-anticipated US payrolls data later today. 

As of 05:25 GMT, gold futures due in February rose 0.12% to $1,245.10 an ounce, while the dollar index barely inched up 0.02% to 96.83. 

Now markets await the crucial US payrolls report, with the unemployment rate expected at 3.7% with no change, while average earnings are estimated with a 0.3% increase, up from 0.2% in October. 

The economy is expected to have created 198 thousand new jobs last month, slowing down sharply from 250K, while wholesale inventories are estimated with a 0.7% increase, same as October. 

The UoM consumer sentiment survey is estimated with a small dip to 97.0 this month from 97.5 in November.