Gold Prices Holding Modest Gains As ADP Reports Job Growth Of 204K
(Kitco News)- The goldmarket is seeing little reaction to in-line private sector employment data asprices bounce of a four-month low.
Wednesday,private sector payrolls processor ADP said that 204,000 jobs were created inApril. According to consensus forecasts, economists were expecting to see jobgrowth of 200,000.
Gold hasmostly ignored economic data lately and has mostly been driven by technicalmomentum and a stronger U.S. dollar. The yellow metal continued to hold on tomodest gains following the employment data. June gold futures last traded at$1,311.10 an ounce, up 0.32% on the day.
The datashowed broad-based gains throughout the U.S. economy. While the in-line numberscould generate some optimism ahead of Friday's official nonfarm payrollsreport, some economists continue to warn that ADP is an inconsistent predictorof the government numbers.
Currently,economists are expecting that the U.S. economy created 189,000 jobs in April.However, some economists have said that the headline number has become lessimportant than the components of the report. Many economists will be anxiousFriday to see if wages have increased.
"With other indicators also suggesting thatlabour market conditions have held up well in April, the ADP data providefurther reason to expect a stronger gain in overall non-farm payrolls when theofficial data are released on Friday," said Andrew Hunter,U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
By Neils ChristensenFor Kitco News
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