Investing.com - Gold prices were holding just below one-week highs on Tuesday as the chances of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year diminished after last week’s unexpectedly weak U.S. jobs report.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery were fluctuating between small gains and losses, and were last at $1,1137.2 an ounce, not far from Monday’s highs of $1,141.7.
Gold rallied on Friday, jumping 2.1%, the largest one day gains since January after data showing the U.S. economy added far fewer jobs than expected in September.
The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added just 142,000 jobs last month, well below expectations of the 201,000 expected by economists.
August’s reading was revised down to 135,000, from the initial reported figure of 173,000.
The report underlined fears that a slowdown in global economic growth has spread to the U.S. economy and prompted investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve to early 2016.
Gold would benefit from any delay in raising U.S. interest rates as the precious metal would struggle to compete with yield-bearing assets. Higher rates would also boost the dollar, which would make dollar-denominated gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Elsewhere in precious metals trading, U.S. silver futures for December delivery were down 0.53% to $15.62, but remained close to Monday’s three month highs of $15.68 while copper for December delivery lost 0.57% to trade at $2.342 a pound.