Investing.com - Gold prices were little changed in cautious trade on Thursday, as investors stuck to the sidelines ahead of Friday's highly-anticipated U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for March delivery traded at USD1,226.00 a troy ounce during European morning trade, up 0.05%. Gold prices held in a tight range between USD1,223.50 a troy ounce and USD1,227.40 a troy ounce. The March contract settled 0.33% lower on Wednesday to end at USD1,225.50 a troy ounce. Futures were likely to find support at USD1,212.60 a troy ounce, the low from January 6 and resistance at USD1,244.70, the high from January 7. Meanwhile, silver for March delivery inched up 0.07% to trade at USD19.55 a troy ounce. The March contract ended Wednesday’s session with a loss of 1.25% to settle at USD19.53 a troy ounce. Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s December meeting showed that the bank cited a stronger labor market in its decision to cut its asset purchase program by USD10 billion, reducing it to USD75 billion-a-month. The minutes also showed that officials were keen to stress that further reductions were not on a “preset course� and would be undertaken in “measured� steps. The minutes came on the heels of a report showing that the U.S. private sector added the largest number of jobs since November 2012 last month. ADP nonfarm payrolls rose by 238,000 in December, easily surpassing expectations for an increase of 200,000. Investors turned their attention to Fridays’ U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for indications on the timing of further reductions to the pace of the Fed’s stimulus program. Some market participants believe the central bank will taper its bond purchases by USD10 billion in each of its next seven meetings before ending the program in December 2014, amid indications of an improving U.S. economy. The Fed is scheduled to meet January 28-29 to review the economy and assess policy. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is to announce its benchmark interest rate later in the day. The announcement is to be followed by a press conference with President Mario Draghi. Data released earlier in the week showed that the annual rate of inflation in the euro zone slowed to 0.8% in December from 0.9% the previous month, fuelling concerns over the threat of deflation. Elsewhere on the Comex, copper futures for March delivery shed 0.7% to trade at USD3.319 a pound. Data released earlier showed that consumer price inflation in China slowed to a seven-month low of 2.5% in December from 3% in November.

Source