Gold prices rose, after the published data on employment in the U.S. has not met the expectations of experts, and reduced speculation as to what the Federal Reserve may begin to cut back its program of monthly purchases of bonds. It should be noted that the bond purchases are part of the Fed's stimulus package, known as quantitative easing, which helped push the price of gold to record levels in recent years, keeping interest rates at extremely low levels and stoking fears of inflation.
Add that to the dynamics of trade have influenced the data from Automatic Data Processing, Inc (ADP), which showed that in May, the level of private sector employment increased by 135 thousand vs. 171 thousand and 113 thousand (revised from 119 thousand ) in April. According to ADP, employment in firms with the number of employees from 1 to 49 increased by 58 thousand jobs in May. The average amount of business with 50-499 employees attracted 39 thousand new employees. Large firms and enterprises with 500 employees or more added 39 thousand new jobs. Employment in the service sector increased by 138 million in May, and manufacturing employment fell again, this time for 6 thousand positions.
The obtained data raise concern about the state of the labor market in the United States on the eve of Friday's employment report from the Labor Department.
Meanwhile, today it was announced that the total volume of imports of gold from Hong Kong to China in April, down to the level of 125.715 tonnes from a record high of 223.519 tonnes in the previous month, despite a fall in metal prices to two-year low for the month.
Gold remains under pressure on concerns that demand from the customer number one - India, greatly suffer from the recent Reserve Bank of India's measures to curb the import of gold.
The cost of the August gold futures on COMEX today rose to 1406.50 dollars an ounce.