Gold resumes decline from nine-year peak

Gold futures tilted lower in Asian trade off September 21 highs as the dollar index climbed from June 24 lows, following earlier data from China and amid a bank holiday in the US. 

As of 04:31 GMT, gold futures due in August inched lower 0.07% to $1,786.60 an ounce, while the dollar index inched up 0.01% to 97.23. 

Earlier Chinese data showed the Caixin services PMI rose to 58.4 in June from 55.0, the widest jump in a decade. 

The US Department of Labor revealed today that the economy has added 4.8 million new jobs in June, beating forecasts of 3 million jobs.

The unemployment rate fell to 11.1% in June, vs. 13.3% in May.

While the unemployment claims reached 1.420 million during the past week vs. forecasts of 1.350 million.

The Federal Reserve released the minutes of its June 9-10 meeting, at which policymakers voted to maintain rates at near zero. 

The Fed expects rates to be maintained at zero until 2022 and for the US economy to contract by 6.5% in 2020 and for unemployment to reach 9.3% by the end of 2020.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin both testified ahead of Congress, with Powell stating that controlling the coronavirus pandemic is vital to restore confidence in the economy, with the Fed preparing a new stimulus package in July. 

Congress has put up $3 trillion so far in stimulus for households and small businesses, while the Fed launched support programs surpassing a trillion dollars to support household and corporate credit markets. 

White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci warned that cases of Covid 19 might reach 100,000 a day if attitudes weren't changes.

The World Health Organization recently warned "the worst hasn't come yet" in the pandemic, as it continues to accelerate and spread.