By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia, giving up some of its gains from the previous session.
Data from the U.S. released overnight said that 1.877 million Americans filed unemployment claims over the past week.
Investors are awaiting the release of U.S. non-farm payrolls data later in the day, with payrolls predicted to fall by 8 million in forecasts prepared by Investing.com.
Gold futures were down by 0.66% at $1,716.05 by 12:14 AM ET (5:14 AM GMT), with even the safe-haven asset infected by the dismal data.
Stocks, which usually move inversely to gold, were mixed on Friday.
They received a brief boost on Thursday after the European Central Bank increasing the size of its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) from EUR 750 billion EUR1.35 trillion ($1.521 trillion).
“Long term picture for gold remains quite good,” Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) analyst Eugen Weinberg told CNBC, adding that exchange-traded fund demand is “very strong".