Gold just shy of breaking below $1,900 on U.S. jobs report, Fed fears

investing.com:

Investing.com — Barely $3 — that’s all the buffer gold had at Thursday’s lows for staying above $1,900 support as prices of the yellow metal tumbled on signs that the U.S. jobs report for June could surprise to the upside and make the Fed more hawkish.

The front-month August gold contract on New York’s Comex settled at $1,915.40 an ounce, down $11.70, or 0.6%, on the day. The session low of $1,902.72 again hovered above the three-month bottom of $1,900.60 struck a week ago.

The spot price of gold, which reflects physical trades in bullion and is more closely followed than futures by some traders, was at $1,910.47 by 15:10 ET (19:10 GMT), down $4.71, or 0.3%. The session low was $1,902.72. Spot gold had already snapped below $1,900 a week ago, hitting a three-month bottom of $1,893.01.

Fear that the Fed will bump up rates again this month grew after payroll processing firm ADP said Thursday that private employers in the United States added nearly 500,000 jobs in June. The number appeared certain to raise eyebrows among officials at the central bank who are eyeing a less dynamic jobs report from the Labor Department later this week to affirm an easing in inflation.

Wall Street’s economists on the average expect the Labor Department’s non-farm payrolls report on Friday to cite a jobs growth of around 225,000 for last month, versus May’s 339,000.

Ahead of that, ADP reported that employers outside the public sector added 497,000 positions in June, on top of the 267,000 the prior month. Craig Erlam, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, noted that gold was looking “very vulnerable” ahead of the non-farm payrolls report.

“The yellow metal is back trading just above $1,900,” said Erlam. “If it manages to hold above in the