(RTTNews) - The price of gold was lingering below the $1,600-mark Friday morning as the U.S. dollar was steady versus a basket of currencies ahead of the jobs data, due out later today.
Gold for August delivery, the most actively traded contract, lost $17.00 to $1,592.40 an ounce. Yesterday, gold ended lower as investors not overtly impressed with some interest rate cuts by major central banks, including the European Central Bank. Gold prices were also under pressure with a strong dollar, with the euro slipping to a five week low.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged at 1,279.51 tons.
This morning, the U.S. dollar moved back near its one-month high versus the euro and to a weekly-high against sterling. The buck was ticking lower against the yen, while trading flat versus the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, industrial production in Germany rose more than expected in May, the latest figures from the Ministry of Economics and Technology showed. Production in Germany climbed 1.6 percent month-on-month in May on a seasonal and calendar adjusted basis. This was faster than the expected 0.1 percent gain.
Meanwhile, output price inflation in the U.K. eased to its lowest level in nearly three years in June as falling prices of crude oil and imported metals allowed manufacturers to reduce charges to cope with weak demand. The output price index for home sales rose 2.3 percent year-on-year, after the 2.9 percent increase in May, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists had expected prices to rise 2.4 percent.
Elsewhere, the prices of silver and platinum were moving lower in morning deals.
From the U.S., the Labor Department will release its non-farm payroll report at 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists expect non-farm payrolls for June to increase by 90,000, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 8.2 percent. In May, the economy added 69,000 new jobs.
