Gold: а review of the market situation

Gold prices rose today, while reaching a seven-week high as weak US employment data led investors to revise their expectations about the timing of the Fed raising interest rates.

After the March meeting of the Fed officials made it clear that does not exclude the first interest rate increase in June, but they believe in September more likely. Minutes of the meeting of the American Central Bank from March 17-18, which will be released on Wednesday, may further clarify what is happening at the Fed, say market participants. It is worth emphasizing the delay in raising interest rates contribute to the demand for gold, as it reduces the relative cost of retaining the metal that guarantees investors a higher profit.

Recall, on Friday, the Ministry of Labor said the number of people employed in non-agricultural sectors of the economy grew at a seasonally adjusted up to 126 000 jobs in March. It was the weakest growth since December of 2013. The average monthly growth in the first quarter totaled 197,000, compared to an average 324,000 in the last three months of 2014. The unemployment rate, obtained from a separate household survey, remained unchanged at 5.5%. Economists had expected the number of employees will grow much stronger at 251,000 in March and predicted that the unemployment rate will be unchanged at 5.5% .Zarabotnaya board, meanwhile, grew at a moderate pace. The average hourly wage of workers in the private sector rose by 7 cents to $ 24.86 in March. Economists had expected growth of 0.2% of wages from February. Compared with a year earlier, hourly wages increased by 2.1% in March, roughly in line with the 2% annual rate in recent years.

Meanwhile, experts note that the increase in gold prices also helped to technical buying after overcoming the mark of $ 1,200 per ounce.

Had little effect as today's data from the ISM. As it became known, in March, the index of business activity in the US service sector, which is calculated by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), worsened slightly, reaching 56.5 at the same level as compared with the February reading at the level of 56.9. According to experts, the value of this index was down to 56.6. In general, the sub-indices showed themselves as follows: the price index in the non-manufacturing sector in March rose to 52.4 vs. 49.7, the index of business activity in the non-manufacturing sector fell to 57.5 from 59.4, the employment index in the non-manufacturing sector rose to 56.6 from 56.4, while the index of new orders in the non-manufacturing sector rose to 57.8 against 56.7 in February

The cost of the June gold futures on the COMEX today rose to 1218.30 dollars per ounce.