Investing.com - Gold prices moved lower in early morning European trade on Friday as investors looked ahead to the U.S. employment report for April and a slightly stronger dollar weighed on the precious metal.
Comex gold futures dropped $3.00, or 0.23%, at $1,309.70 a troy ounce by 4:30AM ET (8:30GMT).
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.12% to 90.23.
Dollar-denominated assets such as gold are sensitive to moves in the dollar – a fall in the dollar makes gold less expensive for holders of foreign currency and thus increases demand for the precious metal.
Market participants are waiting for the publication of the monthly jobs report at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT).
The consensus forecast is that the data will show jobs growth of 189,000, after adding 103,000 positions in March, while the unemployment rate is forecast to dip to 4.0% from 4.1%.
However, most of the focus will likely be on average hourly earnings figures, which are expected to rise 0.2%, following a gain of 0.3% a month earlier. On an annualized basis, wages are forecast to increase 2.7%, the same as the rise seen in March.
Steady wage growth would add to signs of building inflation pressures and likely keep the Federal Reserve on a gradual path of monetary policy tightening.
In other metals trading, silver futures lost 3.7 cents, or 0.2%, at $16.410 a troy ounce by 4:31AM ET (8:31GMT).
Palladium futures traded down 0.1% to $957.95 an ounce. Sister metal platinum slid 0.5% at $899.90.
In base metals, copper inched up 0.1% to $3.083 a pound.