Gold prices return to range volatility again

The data released by the US Department of Labor (DOL) on Friday showed that the number of nonfarm payrolls in the United States increased far more than expected in February, and the unemployment rate dropped significantly, hitting a record low since December 2008. The U.S. dollar index quickly rose and reached a new high since last August. Gold prices fell under pressure and hit a low of 1561 in the past two weeks.

According to the data, the number of non-farm payrolls in the United States rose by 236,000 in February, exceeding the market's expected increase of 16 million; the US unemployment rate declined significantly in February, from 7.9% in January to 7.7%, since December 2008. At the lowest level, the market had previously expected 7.9%.

However, despite the apparent decline in the unemployment rate in the United States, which has caused the market to expect the Federal Reserve (FED) to withdraw more quickly from the easing measures, due to investors’ concerns over the impact of the large-scale US depreciation on its economy, gold was heavily exposed in the 1550-1560 region. Support on bargain-hunting, gold prices corrected immediately after the fall.

"We saw a slight short-covering in the gold market and the entry of hedge funds into the market because the February non-farm payrolls data pressured the Fed's loose policy, but this data," said James Steel, HSBC metal analyst. It still cannot prompt the Fed to change its policy."

Nomura said that "the employment in the United States has increased significantly, but this is not accompanied by the growth of the U.S. economy, suggesting that the vitality of the U.S. labor market is still relatively low. On the contrary, U.S. unemployment rate fell from 7.9% to 7.7%, which may be What's more is because the unemployed who have been hit has given up their job search and withdrawn from the labor market. On the whole, we think that the Fed will not consider exiting the quantitative easing policy in the short term."

For the gold movement this week, overseas media released a survey on Friday. The survey results show that market participants are evenly matched. Twenty-five of the 33 market participants surveyed responded, of which 6 were bullish, 9 were bearish, and 10 were neutral.

Some market participants believe that the U.S. economic data are slowly improving, especially after the U.S. announced its non-farm payroll data in February. Most investors still believe that the price of gold will remain within the current range of $1550-1600/ounce. Bullish market participants say the factors supporting the gold market have not changed.

The world's largest gold exchange deal** (ETF) - SPDR Gold Trust as of March 7th reduced its gold holdings by 1.81 tons to 1,243.05 tons.

The silver holdings of the world's largest silver ETF-iShares Silver Trust as of March 7 remained at 10,646.48 tons.

For other precious metals, spot silver prices rose 0.83% to $29.04 per ounce; spot platinum prices rose 0.16% to $1592.70/1593.50 per ounce; spot palladium prices rose 1.99% to $769.50/770.00 per ounce.