RTRS: Gold falls for 5th day ahead of U.S. jobs data
(Reuters) - Spot gold fell for a fifth straight day on Friday, pressured by dollar strength, as investors wait for a key U.S. employment report later in the day for clues on the health of the world's largest economy.
Some economists raised their forecast for non-farm payrolls, after Wednesday's ADP report showed a surprise jump in private jobs created for December.
A Reuters poll showed that payrolls likely increased by 175,000 in December, revised up from 140,000.
"Gold is probably consolidating ahead of the nonfarm payrolls data," said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at Investec Australia.
"If we see a weaker number, it would be negative for the dollar and positive for gold. Unless the number is much stronger than expected, we probably won't see much move in gold prices."
But some analysts said the nonfarm payrolls number is not always correlated with the ADP figures, and the dollar could face some downside risk if the data turned out not as strong.
The dollar index .DXY edged higher on Friday, building on gains in the previous session, while the euro weakened to its lowest in four months against the dollar.
Spot gold edged down 0.4 percent at $1,365.80 an ounce by 3:15 a.m. ET, headed for a fifth straight day of loss, the longest losing streak unseen since May 2010.
Spot gold was on course for a weekly loss of 3.7 percent, its largest weekly loss since late May.
U.S. gold futures also declined 0.4 percent to $1,366.3.
A bearish target at $1,355 per ounce is unchanged for spot gold as a downward wave "5" has not completed, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst.
For a 24-hour gold technical outlook: here
Physical buying in Asia continued to give support, as jewelers, bullion traders and investors were lured by the current price level, some $60 below its record high of $1,430.95 hit a month ago.
"There is strong buying in Asia on physical market. People are still looking at a good trend this year," said Ronald Leung, a dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.
But buyers were a bit cautious ahead of the nonfarm payrolls release, which is expected to give a clear direction to the market.
