Dubai gold price sees another fall
Gold prices inched down early on Monday on a firmer dollar after robust US jobs data late last week, but a fall in equities cushioned losses.
Dubai gold prices are Dh161.25 for 24-karat and 22karat can be bought for Dh151.25. Spot gold had dipped 0.1 percent to $1,331.80 per ounce by 0051 GMT.
Spot gold fell 1.2 percent, its biggest one-day fall since Dec. 7. Last week, the metal saw its largest weekly decline since the week-ending Dec. 8.
US gold futures were down 0.1 percent at $1,336 per ounce. Non-farm payrolls rose by 200,000 jobs in January, theU.S. Labor Department said, beating expectation of 180,000 and their largest annual gain in more than 8-1/2 years. Average hourly earnings rose and boosted the year-on-year increase to 2.9 percent, the largest rise since June 2009. Futures markets reacted by pricing in the risk of three, or even more, rate rises from the US Federal Reserve this year. The Fed last week held interest rates unchanged, but raised its inflation outlook and flagged "further gradual" rate increases.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was steady at 89.176 having climbed 0.6 percent for its biggest single day gain in three months.
Asian share markets stumbled on Monday as fears of resurgent inflation battered bonds, toppled Wall Street from record highs and sparked speculation central banks globally might be forced to tighten more aggressively.
Hedge funds and money managers raised their net long position in COMEX gold contracts in the week to Jan. 30 to their highest level since lateSeptember, while they also raised their net long position in silver contracts, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed. All the miners who were trapped underground for more than 24 hours after a storm knocked out powerlines supplying electricity to the Beatrix gold mine in South Africa have been rescued, operator SibanyeStillwater SGLJ.J said. Demand for physical gold improved this week in India as jewellers resumed purchases after the government kept import taxes on the precious metal unchanged, while buying remained subdued in most other centres in Asia.