By Anushree Ashish Mukherjee
(Reuters) – Gold prices eased on Friday, retreating from near-record levels reached earlier in the session, after mixed U.S. jobs data cast doubts on the scale of interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve later this month.
Spot gold fell 0.8% to $2,495.86 per ounce by 1:59 p.m. ET (1759 GMT), having hit its highest since Aug. 20, when gold last scaled a record peak.
U.S. gold futures settled 0.7% lower at $2,524.60.
A Labor Department report showed non-farm payrolls rose by 142,000 in August, compared with estimates of 160,000, as per economists polled by Reuters. July numbers were also revised down to 89,000.
However, the unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, in line with expectations, but down from 4.3% a month earlier.
Gold paper traders are debating whether the Fed will cut 50 basis points or 25 basis points on Sept. 18 and the precious metal is reacting to it, said Aakash Doshi, head of commodities, North America at Citi Research.
Traders currently see a 73% chance of a 25-basis-point (bp) reduction by the U.S. central bank this month and a 27% chance of a 50-bp cut, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Fed New York President John Williams said lowering rates soon will be about helping keep the job market balanced.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller also said “the time has come” for the U.S. central bank to begin a series of interest rate cuts, adding that he is open-minded about the size and pace of those reductions.
Lower interest rates reduce the opportunity cost of holding the zero-yield bullion.
“We think the Fed is likely to cut more steeply, and that’s when we think gold prices will build upside risk, and we’ll start to see prices trading towards $2,700 as the year unfolds,” said Standard Chartered analyst Suki Cooper.
Elsewhere, spot silver fell 3.1% to $27.92.
Platinum retreated 0.4% to $920.55 while palladium dropped 3.1% to $913.00.
(Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee and Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
