Gold dropped in Asia on Thursday as investors looked ahead to end of the week nonfarm payroll figures following a Fed review that set a weaker tone for the precious metal.
Gold for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 0.53% to $1,241.87 a troy ounce. Copper futures on the Comex rose 0.64% to $2.533.
Australia reported its trade balance for March at A$3.107 billion, a tad narrower than the A$3.4 billion surplus seen. China reported the Caixin services PMI for April dropepd to 51.6, compared with a 52.6 level expected, and the lowest in early a year.
The Federal Reserve struck a familiar tone in its statement concerning interest rates, pointing out that interest rate increases will be gradual in 2017, and highlighted that growth in economic activity had slowed in the first quarter while household spending rose “only modestly”.
Overnight, gold prices traded lower on Wednesday, after the release of strong U.S. data sparked upside momentum in the dollar and capped gains in the precious metal.
Gold continued to trade close to three-week lows, after better than expected jobs and services sector growth data fuelled expectations that the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates in June.
The Institute for Supply Management said its non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 57.5 in April from 55.2 in March. The reading was above economists’ forecasts of 55.8.
A report from ADP and Moody’s Analytics showed U.S. companies created 177,000 new positions for the month, slightly above expectations of 175,000.
According to the latest polls, pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron holds a healthy lead, about 20 percentage points, over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
In other precious metals trading, silver futures lost 1.31% to $16.611 a troy ounce while platinum traded at $904.50, down 2.32%.
