Gold prices are trading moderately up and near daily highs in morning trading Friday. This morning’s April U.S. employment report showed a rise of 263,000, which was well above the forecast at up 190,000. However, Wednesday’s strong ADP jobs gain (up 275,000 versus expectations of up 177,000) had many thinking today’s more important Labor Department jobs number would indeed be higher. So gold traders and traders of other markets employed an old trading maxim today: “sell the rumor, buy the fact.” After being pressured most of this week, the gold market bears were too exhausted to press the market any farther down. The same goes for the U.S. dollar today. Despite the strong jobs number, the greenback could not benefit as the bulls already pushed the USDX to a two-year high earlier this week. June gold was last up $6.30 at $1,278.20.
By Jim Wyckoff
For Kitco News
Contact jwyckoff@kitco.com
www.kitco.com
