By Anjana Anil and Sarah Qureshi
(Reuters) – Gold edged lower on Friday and was headed for a second consecutive weekly loss as easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China and a strong jobs report kept prices pressured.
Spot gold was down 0.2% at $3,233.30 an ounce as of 11:50 a.m. ET (1550 GMT). Prices were down 2.6% weekly, after hitting a record $3,500.05 on April 22. It hit its lowest since April 14 on Thursday.
U.S. gold futures rose 0.6% to $3,241.70.
China’s commerce ministry said the U.S. has repeatedly expressed willingness to negotiate on tariffs and that Beijing’s door is open for talks.
“Gold looks like $3,500 may be a top for a little while, especially if some trade deals start to come through and some risk on appetite starts to break through the kind of negative euphoria that we’ve been seeing since the tariff talks,” said Daniel Pavilonis, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
Data showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 177,000 jobs last month. A Reuters survey had forecast an increase of 130,000 jobs.
However, the report is backward-looking and it is too early for the labor market to show the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-and-off-again tariffs policy.
Traders trimmed bets that the Federal Reserve will cut rates as soon as June after the jobs report.
Yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds rose. Higher interest rates tend to make non-yielding bullion less appealing to investors. [US/]
“With safe-haven demand softening, prices could ease back even more and potentially break this week’s support near the $3,200 area,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com
Spot silver fell 1.2% to $32.01 an ounce, platinum eased 0.2% to $958.70 and palladium added 0.5% to $945.25. All three metals were on track for weekly declines.
(Reporting by Anjana Anil and Sarah Qureshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Sahal Muhammed)
