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Gold futures traded slightly higher Monday morning, with bullion attempting to retake a post at $1,800 after notching the sharpest weekly slump since late November.
February gold
GCG22,
GC00,
was up $3.10, or 0.2%, at $1,800.50 an ounce, following a 1.7% weekly slide for the commodity, which marked the steepest weekly decline since Nov. 26, bringing it to the lowest price for a most-active contract since Dec. 21.
Kinesis Money analyst Carlo Alberto De Casa wrote that a trade above $1,800 is a positive sign for bullion but noted that he is looking for the yellow metal to push toward resistance of around $1,830 to confirm its strength.
“From a technical point of view, a surpass of the $1,800 mark would denote strength, even if we would have a clear positive signal only with a return of prices above the resistance zone of $1,830,” he wrote.
On Friday, gold managed to log a gain after a report on the U.S. labor market showed that the country created 199,000 new jobs in December, far short of estimates for more than twice that figure. The unemployment rate, however, fell to a pandemic low of 3.9% from 4.2%.
See: Jekyll-and-Hyde U.S. jobs report not as ugly as it looks
Gold and other precious metals have been pressured by prospects of tighter monetary policy from the Fed and it is unclear what, if any impact, the Friday figures will have on the central bank, which next meets Jan. 25-26.
Meanwhile, March silver
SIH22,
was down 1 cent, or less than 0.1%, to trade at $22.43, after a 4% weekly loss put in on Friday.
Commodity investors may be looking out for data on inflation, starting with a reading of the consumer-price index on Wednesday and an update on U.S. retail sales on Friday, which could influence trade in metals.
