“Gold prices rise on US job report and Chinese demand”

Gold prices rose at the settlement of trading session, today, Monday, May 8th, to close higher for the fourth time in the last five sessions.

Upon settlement, gold futures rose by 0.4%, or $8.4, to $2,033.2 an ounce. And gold had recorded significant losses in the last session last week, as it declined by 1.5%, equivalent to about $ 31.

The metal’s trading was affected by the US jobs report for the month of April, which showed more jobs than analysts’ expectations, while all eyes are on inflation data in the US, which is scheduled to be released on Wednesday.

With regard to monetary policy decisions, the “CME FedWatch” tool indicated that the market’s expectations of the Fed’s interest rate fixation at next month’s meeting reached 88%, with 33% expecting the bank to cut rates in July.

Early this month, the British newspaper “Financial Times” reported that gold is approaching its highest levels ever, as renewed Chinese demand and concerns about the health of regional US banks fueled its 6-month rise.

The newspaper pointed out that “consumers in China rushed to buy more gold in the first three months of the year, while the failure of 3 US banks prompted investors to resort to the yellow metal, which acts as a store of value in times of uncertainty.”

She pointed out that “the wave of purchases from central banks extended to this year, as it recorded a record of 228 tons of gold in the first quarter, according to the quarterly report of the World Gold Council.”

The Financial Times added that non-Western institutions “acquired the yellow metal to balance their dependence on the dollar after Washington used it as a weapon against Moscow.”