MTS Help Center

Gold held steady on Monday after climbing as much as over 1 percent in the previous session as a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data trimmed expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September.

U.S. employment growth slowed more than expected in August after two straight months of robust gains and wages were tepid.

"The disappointment in the nonfarm payrolls data has been translated into optimism for gold prices at the moment. We can expect prices to further rebound to $1,350 in a short-term," said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong's Wing Fung Financial Group.

Spot gold was mostly unchanged at $1,324.16 per ounce by 0347 GMT. The metal rose 0.9 percent to$1,324.65 on Friday.

U.S. gold futures were up slightly at $1,327.90.

"Gold should continue to see interest support following Friday's jobs data as the chances of an interest rate rise in September pull back," MKS PAMP Group precious metals trader Sam Laughlin said in a note.

"The pricing on Monday morning has been quiet and we expect it to remain so with New York out tonight. The support broadly sits around $1,315 - $1,320, while bulls will be looking for a break above$1,330," Laughlin said.

Spot gold may retrace to a support at $1,315 per ounce, as it failed to break a resistance at $1,330, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

Gold prices held near a one-week high during European hours on Monday, as disappointing U.S. employment data diminished the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its policy meeting later this month.

According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, investors are pricing in a 24% chance of a rate hike at the Fed's September 20-21 meeting, down from 27% ahead of the employment data. December odds were at around 54%.

The import of gold in to the country witnessed a decline of 24.27 per cent in July 2016 as compared to the import of July 2015.

During the month under review, 31 kilogram worth of US $1.27 million was imported compared to the import of 47 kg valuing $1.677 million in same month of previous year.

On month-on-month basis, the import of yellow metal also decreased by 24.09 per cent as against the import of $1.673 million in June 2015, according to a latest data revealed by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Reference: Reuters, Investing