By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Gold futures declined in electronic trading Friday ahead of key U.S. jobs data due later in the day.
Gold for August delivery GCQ2 -0.28% fell $8.50 to trade at $1,555.70 an ounce in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The precious metal ended down 0.1% in regular New York trading on Thursday, pressured by a sell-off in the U.S. equity market as traders reached for cash. Read more on Thursday's gold trading,
Gold futures lost 6% during May.
HSBC metal analysts said that the U.S. nonfarm payrols report due out Friday is likely to influence gold prices.
“Friday’s employment release may have added significance for the Federal Reserve’s assessment of the need for additional monetary easing, and therefore for gold price direction,” they said.
“A disappointing number may boost gold, but a better-than-expected number could weigh on prices,” they added.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch project that the U.S. added a net 170,000 jobs last month, which would be up from an initial reading of 115,000 in April.
Yet that would be far slower than the average of 252,000 jobs created during December to February and would fall well short of the norm in a typical economic recovery. Read payrolls preview.
In other metals trading, July silver futures SIN2 -0.15% lost 11 cents to trade at $27.65 an ounce, and July platinum futures PLN2 -1.14% fell $21 to $1,396.60 an ounce.
July copper HGN2 +0.02% rose 1 cent to $3.37 per pound, bucking the lower metals trend.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
