Gold down ahead of U.S. data

Gold edged lower on Friday in Asia but remained steady as investors held back from making big bets ahead of the latest U.S. jobs report.

Gold futures dipped 0.03% to $1,758.60 by 12:22 AM ET (4:22 AM GMT), down about 0.3% so far in the week. The dollar, typically moving inversely to gold, moved up on Friday but stayed below a one-year high.

The U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, will be released within the day and could affect the U.S. Federal Reserve’s timetable for starting asset tapering. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell remarked in September that there was broad agreement among policymakers to begin asset tapering as early as November this year, provided that the jobs report for September was “decent”.

The number of initial jobless claims filed during the past week fell to 326,000, the highest in three months, and a further sign of recovery in the country’s job market.

In other precious metals, silver shed 0.4%, while platinum gained 0.2% and palladium slipped 0.4% to $1,951.93.