Gold steadies ahead of US jobs report

Gold prices held steadily on Friday in a limited range of trading, as investors avoid building new positions ahead of the US jobs report, which provides insight about the economic recovery in the US after easing the coronavirus lockdown.

Gold prices traded at $1,710.55 an ounce as of 08:55 GMT, after opening at $1,713.09, and hitting an intraday high of $1,716.54 and a low of $1,706.96.

The yellow metal rose 1% yesterday, to post its first daily gain in 3 days, recovering from a 4-week low of $1,689.16. 

Gold prices lost 1.1% so far this week, to head for the third weekly loss, on slow demand and improved risk-appetite, which was reflected in a broad rally in most global stock markets.

Investors are anticipating the release of key data later today, as the non-farm employment change reading will be released at 12:30 GMT, with forecasts of losing 7.750 million jobs in May vs. 20.537 million job lost in April, and the unemployment rate is expected to rise to 19.4%, while the average hourly earnings is expected to rise by 1% vs. 4.7%.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF fell 1.16 metric tonnes yesterday, at a total of 1,133.37 metric tonnes, which is the highest since May 2013.