The prices of gold futures contracts stabilized at the close of the previous session, as the markets absorbed data showing the flexibility of the labor market in the world’s largest economy, despite the Federal Reserve’s restrictive monetary policy.
The future prices of gold for delivery in February were set at $2049.8 per ounce, after falling to $2030.80 during trading, ending a three-week winning streak after a decrease of over 1% since the start of the week.
The dollar index, which measures the performance of the US dollar against a basket of 6 major currencies, closed at 102.49 points in the previous day’s trading after previously rising to 103.10 points.
According to official data, the US economy added 216,000 non-farm jobs in December, surpassing the expected addition of 170,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7%.
According to the “FeedWatch” tool, the markets indicate that there is a 93.3% probability that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged during the current January meeting, with a decrease in expectations of a 25 basis point cut by the US central bank in borrowing costs during the March meeting to 62.1% from the previous week’s 73.4%.
