Gold futures took a pause early Friday, trading slightly lower a day after the yellow metal rebounded to close at a three-month high in a move tied to a slumping U.S. dollar.
Gold for December delivery GCZ8, -0.13% on was off $1.60, or 0.1%, to $1,237 an ounce, while December silver SIZ8, +0.19% rose 0.8 cents, or 0.1%, to $14.785 an ounce.
Investors will pay close attention to the October jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were looking, on average, for nonfarm payrolls to rise 208,000, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.7%. Average hourly earnings are forecast to rise 0.1%.
Read: Higher pay for workers under microscope as Wall Street braces for October jobs report
A strong report could pressure gold as it would reinforce expectations the Federal Reserve will continue to tighten monetary policy at a steady pace, wrote analysts at Commerzbank, in a Friday note.
Analysts were also still talking about Wednesday’s third-quarter update on demand trends from the World Gold Council, which showed strong central bank purchases and increases in consumer demand but growing supply and weak investment flows.
Christopher Louney, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, noted that October, the first full month of the fourth quarter, saw a recovery in physically backed gold holdings by exchange-traded products, which rose by more than 20 tons overall.
“The balance of this quarter may prove a healthy turnaround versus the aforementioned Q3 2018 investment numbers, and particularly if physical demand strength can persist in any reasonable amount, Q4 could shape up to be a healthy quarter in line with our price forecasts,” Louney said, in a note.
In other metals trade, January platinum futures PLF9, +0.59% rose 0.6% to $867.60 an ounce, while December palladium futures PAZ8, +0.97% lost 1.1% to $1,092.90 an ounce.
December copper prices HGZ8, +2.08% jumped 1.9% to $2.7735 a pound.
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