Gold: an overview of the market situation

Gold prices fell sharply, reaching almost yesterday's lows, on expectations of tomorrow's jobs report. It is expected that the number of employees rose again in July, but has a slower pace. Partial confirmation of this forecast is to reduce the average number of initial applications for unemployment benefits over the past four weeks and the likely improvement of manufacturing employment. However, the weak gains in the services sector may weigh on the July employment rate. We also add that, despite the improvement in the labor market, the unemployment rate in June remained at 7.6%, although it is expected to fall to 7.5% in July.

It should be noted that the dynamics of trade also continue to influence the Fed's statement yesterday, in spite of the fact that carried no indication of a change in monetary policy.

We also add that, according to Commerzbank, gold reserves for ETFs generally remained unchanged for six consecutive days, while stocks in the SPDR Trust - the largest gold exchange-traded fund, were unchanged for five consecutive days.

Not unimportant factor that continues to influence prices is to reduce the physical demand in India, where the government tried to curb the import of precious metals in the country through a variety of tax and direct action.

The cost of the August gold futures on COMEX today dropped to $ 1315.20 per ounce.