Investors look to nonfarm payroll figures for any hints as to when the Federal Reserve will taper down its asset purchases. The traders await the U.S. Labor Department’s unemployment report for March, due later Friday. On Thursday, weekly jobless claims rose to a four-month high, raising concerns that already-sluggish levels of hiring in the U.S. may be slowing.
In February, US non-farm payrolls rose by 236,000; the market is going for another increase, albeit a smaller one of 190,000, for March. That consensus view may ease lower, however, after Wednesday's employment report from payrolls processing firm ADP indicated only 158,000 workers were added to private sector payrolls in March.
That increase was the smallest since October of last year and was way below the 190,000 to 200,000 economists had been forecast. Having said that, the ADP report is, at best, an often unreliable harbinger of trends in the official US non-farm payrolls data. The US unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 7.7%.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.2% at 82.862 during Asian trading Friday. The dollar also extended its climb against the Japanese yen, which tumbled in the wake of the Bank of Japan’s aggressive monetary easing plan announced Thursday.
Gold for June delivery is trading down $2 at $ 1550 an ounce levels during Asian morning trading hours on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday, it fell $2, or 0.1%, to $1,550.40 an ounce.
Prices settled Thursday’s session down $1.10 at $1,552.40 an ounce, but they managed to pare losses during the final minutes of trading, as the U.S. dollar lost more ground against the euro. Gold on Thursday marked its third consecutive decline and was on track for a loss of nearly 3% for the week.
MCX June gold futures may open today’s session near Rs 29340 levels with support near Rs 29300-250 levels and resistance near Rs 29400 levels.
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