Gold fell more than 1 percent on Friday after US payrolls data for March beat expectations, allaying some fears over the health of the US economy and stoking speculation that the Federal Reserve may press ahead with interest rate hikes this year. US employers added 215,000 jobs in March, the report showed, against expectations for 205,000. US interest rate futures suggested traders are now betting the Fed will next raise rates as soon as November, versus December ahead of the report.
Spot gold was down 1.4 percent at $1,214.66 an ounce at 1330 GMT, having earlier touched a low of $1,213.10, while US gold futures for June delivery were down $18.90 an ounce at $1,216.50. The metal saw its biggest quarterly rise in nearly 30 years in the three months to March, rallying more than 16 percent as expectations faded that the Fed would move to normalise interest rates after their first increase in nearly a decade in December. "Generally this was a positive report, and therefore gold has now broken down," Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said. "It has been enough to see a bit of liquidation, maybe an excuse to take some profits given that we had a fantastic run-up in the first quarter."
"The debate carries on - does this actually clear up the question of whether the Fed increases or not this year? I don't think it does." Gold had risen as much as 2 percent earlier this week after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the US central bank should proceed only cautiously with further interest rate increases. The metal is sensitive to moves in US rates, as a rise would lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar.
"I don't think the market has to fear big interest rate hikes in 2016 from the Fed," LBBW analyst Thorsten Proettel said. "Overall monetary policy will be very supportive for gold." Physical gold demand in the major Asian markets of China and India has been soft this week due to rising prices, traders said. India's gold demand in the March quarter is set to drop by about two-thirds from a year ago to its lowest in seven years. Silver was down 3.2 percent at $14.88 an ounce, while platinum was down 2.3 percent at $949.50 an ounce and palladium was down 0.8 percent at $557.75 an ounce.