SINGAPORE, April 8 (Reuters) – Gold edged lower on Monday,
but stayed near highs hit in the previous session when it rose
by the most since November on poor U.S. jobs data that
reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will sustain its
bullion-boosting monetary stimulus programme.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold slipped 0.4 percent to $1,575.99 an ounce
by 0034 GMT, also hurt by a firmer dollar versus a basket of
currencies.
* Gold jumped nearly 2 percent to a session high of
$1,581.55 on Friday after data showed U.S. employers hired at
the slowest pace in nine months in March, adding just 88,000
jobs against an expected 200,000. The jobless rate ticked down
to 7.6 percent, but the drop was largely due to people dropping
out of the workforce.
* U.S. gold futures were steady at $1,576.20 an
ounce.
* Bullion holdings at the world’s major gold exchange traded
funds continued to fall, hitting their lowest
since August 2012.
* Hedge funds and money managers have increased their
bearish bets on silver futures and options, switching to a net
short position on the market for the first time since 2006, data
from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed.
* China’s leaders issued thinly veiled rebukes to North
Korea for raising regional tensions, with the president saying
no country should throw the world into chaos and the foreign
minister warning that Beijing would not allow mischief on its
doorstep.
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MARKET NEWS
* The yen hit fresh lows against a host of major currencies
early in Asia, resuming its precipitous slide on reports the
Bank of Japan would begin buying longer-dated bonds immediately
as it underlined its determination to beat deflation.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0830 Euro zone Sentix index
1000 Germany Industrial output
1230 U.S. Fed Midwest manufacturing
1400 U.S. Employment trend index
2315 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks
Precious metals prices 0034 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1575.99 -5.51 -0.35 -5.89
Spot Silver 27.28 -0.02 -0.07 -9.91
Spot Platinum 1534.50 3.50 +0.23 -0.03
Spot Palladium 728.48 2.07 +0.28 5.27
COMEX GOLD JUN3 1576.20 0.30 +0.02 -5.94 7066
COMEX SILVER MAY3 27.23 0.01 +0.04 -9.92 1093
Euro/Dollar 1.2992
Dollar/Yen 98.44
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
(Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
