Silver gains ground for first session in three, dollar barely higher

Silver futures inched higher in Asian trade while the dollar index eked out modest gains, ahead of highly-anticipated US payrolls data later today. 

As of 06:14 GMT, silver futures due in March rose 0.32% to $14.55 an ounce, while the dollar index barely added 0.07% to 96.88. 

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.