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Gold futures traded slightly lower Wednesday morning, with investors awaiting economic reports for the U.S., including a reading of private-sector employment that could offer some guidance for a more closely followed jobs report due on Friday from the U.S. Labor Department.
Investors are attuned to the labor market data because it could help determine the pace and timing of the Federal Reserve’s tapering of purchases of $80 billion in Treasurys and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities, which have helped to support financial markets in the U.S. during the worst of the COVID pandemic.
However, the recovery from the pandemic, amid the spread of the coronavirus delta variant, has raised questions about the need for ongoing easy money policy.
Against that backdrop, December gold
GCZ21,
was trading $3.40, or 0.2%, lower at $1,814.70 an ounce, following a 0.3% gain on Tuesday. The precious metal put in a monthly advance of less than $1.
The August employment report from Automatic Data Processing will be released at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time and will be followed by an IHS Markit reading of manufacturing activity for August due at 9:45 a.m. and the Institute for Supply Management’s comparable manufacturing index at 10 a.m. A report on construction spending for July is due at the same time as ISM data.
In other metals, silver for December delivery
SIZ21,
was trading 5 cents, or 0.2%, lower at $23.97 an ounce to start September, following a monthly fall of 6%.
