Gold prices rose for a third day on Thursday after the U.S. House voted on a debt ceiling bill late Wednesday with investors looking ahead to monthly labor market data due Friday.
Price action
-
Gold futures for August delivery
GC00,
+0.33% GCQ23,
+0.33%
gained $2.70, or 0.1%, to $1,984 per ounce on Comex. -
Silver futures for July delivery
SI00,
+0.65% SIN23,
+0.65%
increased by 2 cents, or 0.1%, to $23.62 per ounce. -
Platinum futures due in July
PLN23,
+0.61%
climbed by $5, or 0.5%, to $1,004 per ounce, while palladium for September
PAU23,
+1.03%
gained $1, or less than 0.1%, to $1,360 per ounce. -
Copper for July delivery
HGN23,
+1.37%
rose by 5 cents, or 1.4%, to $3.70 per pound.
Market drivers
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 314-117 in favor of raising the federal debt-ceiling on Wednesday night, keeping Washington on track to avoid a technical default by June 5.
Traders were also digesting a batch of U.S. employment data released early Thursday which suggested the labor market remained healthy. ADP private-sector employment data released Thursday at 8:15 a.m. Eastern showed that the U.S. added 278,000 in May, surpassing economists’ expectations by nearly 100,000.
“Traders are now looking ahead to the Labor Department’s employment situation report for May on Friday morning,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco, in emailed commentary.
Investor attention now turns to the May employment data from the U.S. Labor Department due Friday. The U.S. is expected to add 180,000 jobs in May, down from 253,000 in the prior month, economists polled by the Wall Street Journal estimate. That would be the second-smallest increase this year.
Meanwhile, lower Treasury yields this week have helped boost the price of gold, market analysts said, by making bonds seem less appealing. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
was off by 5 basis points Thursday morning to 3.587%.
This story originally appeared on Marketwatch
