By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Gold futures fell Thursday in a downbeat session across most commodity and equity markets, while the dollar turned higher.
Gold for June delivery GCM2 -0.44% dropped $4.90, or 0.3%, at $1,649.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading, putting the metal on track for a weekly loss of 0.9%.
The losses extend a 0.5% fall notched earlier in the North American session, after a disappointing U.S. private sector jobs print troubled investors, and cast doubt on the strength of Friday’s more closely-watched nonfarm payrolls report.
Weak European manufacturing data added to concerns about a fragile global economy, and helped set a negative tone for the Asian session.
A higher dollar put further pressure on the metals complex, with the ICE dollar index DXY +0.04% trading at 79.204, up from 79.131 in late North American trading on Thursday.
A stronger greenback tends to discourage investment in dollar-priced commodities including metals as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies.
The wider metals suite tracked gold lower, though palladium eked out a gain.
July copper HGN2 -0.52% lost 1 cents, or 0.3%, to $3.78 per pound.
Meanwhile, silver for July delivery SIN2 -0.62% dropped 14 cents, or 0.5%, to $30.50 an ounce.
July platinum PLN2 -0.19% shed $2.30, or 0.2%, to $1,562.10 an ounce, while palladium for June delivery PAM2 -0.26% inched up 25 cents to $669.70 an ounce.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
