Gold racked up its 8th straight day of losses today as another strong round of data from the US hit the market increasing the chance of a rate hike from the US Federal Reserve.
At 7.18pm (GMT) the gold price was trading at $1,250 down from $1.266 in yesterday’s trading.
For the 3rd day this week, the market has witnessed better than expected data from the US which started on Monday with strong ISM manufacturing figures.
Today the initial Jobs claim figure came in at 249,000 against analysts’ expectations for a number of 256,000 which boosted the US dollar and in turn punished gold.
The strong employment numbers have set the stage for a strong non-farm payrolls figure tomorrow will all but guarantee that the Fed will raise rates before the end of the year which is only going to cause more pain for gold.
"We've got the non-farm payrolls data on Friday, so a lot of people will be cautious ahead of that," Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS in Switzerland, said. "The market is generally a bit disappointed with gold. Whatever happens, we just don't seem to be able to get above $1,350."
"I guess everyone is waiting for the U.S. election (in November), and then we'll see what happens in December with the rate hike." he added.