Gold Prices Shake Off 313K New Jobs In February; Wage Growth Disappoints
(Kitco News)- The gold market is seeing little movement Friday, following mixed employment data of strongemployment gains but weak wage growth last month.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said 313,000 jobswere created in February. Economists were expecting to see job gains of around200,000. Not only did February job gains beat expectations, strong revisions were reported in December and January. December's data was revised up to 175,000 jobs, up from the previous estimate of 160,000. January's data was revised up to 239,000, up from the previous estimate of 200,000.
"After revisions, jobgains have averaged 242,000 over the last 3 months," the report said.
At the same time, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%,which was higher than expectations with forecasts calling for a drop to 4.0%.
Gold prices were seeing some profit taking ahead of thereport, and have pushed only slightly lower in initial reaction. April gold futures last traded at $1,314.50 an ounce, down 0.53% on the day.
According to some analysts, gold is seeing little reaction to the stronger-than-expected employment data because wages continue to disappoint market expectations. The report said that lastmonth average hourly earnings increased by four cents or 0.1% to $26.75.Markets were expecting to see an increase of 0.2%.
Annually the report said that wages increased 2.6%.
Some economists have noted that the muted wage growth couldencourage the dovish members in the Federal Reserve to call for looser monetarypolicy. There are members on the central bank committee who want to wait forinflation to pick up before they raise interest rates again.
"February data confirmed our suspicion that lastmonth's strong wage figure was largely an illusion, with a tame 0.1% gain inthe latest month taking the annual rate back close to the average of the pastcouple of years," said Andrew Grantham, senior economist at CIBC World Markets. "the wage numbers should allay fears of a quickpick up in inflation, and as such we still see the Fed hiking interest ratesthree times this year ie. the same pace as that seen in 2017."
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economistssaid that he is not paying much attention to wage data. He explained that anecdotalevidence reports severe labor shortages through many industry and this will ultimatelylead to high wages.
He noted that February’s job gains was the biggest in 18months.
“This is more evidence that the Fedwill need to hike four times this year, starting later this month,” he said.
By Neils ChristensenFor Kitco News
Follow neils_C
nchristensen@kitco.comwww.kitco.com Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.