Gold prices rose to near one-month highs as investors awaited the release of the US Labor Department’s jobs report on Friday to shape expectations for interest rates. Domestic gold prices this morning (2/2) continued to rise stronger than international prices, aiming for the milestone of 79 million dong/tael.
At the close of Thursday’s trading session in the US market, spot gold prices rose about $15/oz, equivalent to an increase of more than 0.7%, closing at $2,055/oz. At one point during the session, gold prices reached their highest level since January 3rd.
Gold maintains its upward trend despite the disappointment of investors from the Federal Reserve’s first monetary policy meeting in 2024. Although it kept the federal fund rate as expected, the Fed pushed back market expectations for the timing of when the central bank could begin to loosen monetary policy. During a press conference on Wednesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell ruled out the possibility of lowering interest rates in March.
The US Department of Labor’s weekly report on Thursday showed that initial jobless claims for the week ending January 27th increased to 224,000, exceeding expectations. The deteriorating labor market outlook could lead the Fed to cut interest rates earlier, which is beneficial to gold prices.
However, another conflicting report provided conflicting data, showing that US labor productivity increased faster than expected in the fourth quarter – a factor that could accelerate economic growth and reduce the Fed’s chances of early interest rate cuts.
According to Phillip Streible, Chief Market Strategist at Blue Line Futures, gold prices are still facing obstacles due to signals from the Fed in the recent meeting, but are maintaining a slight upward trend thanks to initial jobless claims data.
Investors’ focus in Friday’s trading session will be on the comprehensive January employment report from the US Department of Labor. This report will be an important data point reflecting the state of the US economy, thereby affecting interest rate expectations and the path of the Fed’s interest rates.
After this meeting of the Fed, the market is betting more on the Fed’s possibility of starting to cut interest rates in May. According to data from the CME’s FedWatch Tool, traders are placing bets on the likelihood of about 96% that the Fed will have its first interest rate cut in May.
“Gold prices will continue to fluctuate in a narrow range, but will lean towards a decline. However, the decline will be limited before the release of the US employment report on Friday,” said Jigar Pandit, Head of Basic Goods Division at BNP Paribas in Paris.
At nearly 9am this morning in Vietnam time, spot gold price in the Asian market stood at $2,054.4/oz, down $0.6/oz compared to last night’s closing price in New York. This price corresponds to about 60.8 million dong/tael if converted at the USD selling rate at Vietcombank.
Compared to yesterday morning, the world gold price converted is now up by 400,000 dong/tael.
At the same time, Phu Quy Group listed the SJC gold price for the Hanoi market at 76.3 million dong/tael (buying) and 78.45 million dong/tael (selling). Compared to yesterday morning, the SJC gold price in this business is now up 600,000 dong/tael in the buying direction and up 500,000 dong/tael in the selling direction.
However, compared to the late afternoon, the gold bar price at Phu Quy is currently up 200,000 dong/tael on each end of the price.
Round plain rings 999.9 of Phu Quy brand have prices of 64.4 million dong/tael and 65.5 million dong/tael, up 150,000 dong/tael on each end of the price compared to yesterday morning.
In the Ho Chi Minh City market, the SJC company quoted the same brand gold bar prices at 76.4 million dong/tael and 78.7 million dong/tael, corresponding to the buying and selling prices, up 700,000 dong/tael on each end of the price compared to yesterday morning.
In the past 3 days, the gold bar price has increased much more than the international price, totaling about 2 million dong/tael, while the world gold price converted only increased about 500,000 dong/tael.
Compared to the converted world gold price, the retail SJC gold bar price is currently higher by nearly 18 million dong/tael, while the gold ring is higher by about 4.7 million dong/tael.
In the international market, the USD weakened sharply in Thursday’s session, with the Dollar Index falling below 103.1 points, from the 103.8 points of the previous session.
