Gold slips ahead of US jobs data

Gold prices fell marginally during the European session on Friday, but still on the cusp of the second straight weekly gain, as the US dollar fell against a basket of global currencies, ahead of the release of the US jobs data, which provides insight on the overall US economic health and odds for the Fed to cut interest rates for the fourth time this year.

Gold prices fell 0.2% to $1,471.45, after opening at $1,475.50, and hit a session-high of $1,476.42.

The yellow metal closed higher by 0.2% yesterday,  it second daily gain in 3 days as the US dollar continued to drop. 

During this week, gold prices gained 0.6%, on the cusp of the second straight weekly gain.

The weekly gain is partly due to the drop in dollar is due to successive weak US data on major sectors, which boosted the odds for a fourth US rate cut this year.

Investors are anticipating the release of the US jobs data, which provides insight on the overall US economic health during November and odds for the Fed to cut interest rates for the fourth time this year.

At 13:15 GMT, the US non-farm employment change index reading will be released, with forecasts of the addition of 181K new jobs in vs. 128K in October, with the unemployment rate holding at 3.6%, and the average hourly income rising by 0.3% vs. 0.2% in October.

Gold holdings at the SPDR Gold Trust, remained unchanged yesterday, with a total of 888.57 metric tons (lowest since Sept.18).