By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures retraced most of the earlier losses on Wednesday after a report showed U.S. employers added a little more than some analysts predicted.
Copper had briefly topped Tuesday’s closing high on supply concerns amid nervousness as a severe cyclone headed toward Australia. Read more on cyclone, Queensland.
Gold futures for April delivery (GCJ11 1,339, -1.00, -0.08%) were down 50 cents at $1,339.70 an ounce, after slipping to $1,333.10 earlier.
March copper futures (HGH11 453.75, -0.95, -0.21%) were little changed at $4.54 a pound, after closing at the highest level ever on the Comex unit of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday. See story on gold, copper.
Gold’s descent was limited after ADP reported that U.S. employers added 187,000 jobs in January. The data caused the dollar to give up some of its gains, making gold relatively more attractive to investors.
The dollar index (DXY 77.09, +0.02, +0.03%) , which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded at 77.068 after the jobs data, vs. 77.158 before the report and compared to 76.008 late Tuesday.
“For now, the easing of concerns over Egypt and a series of strong macro data around the world suggest that gold might find it hard to break significantly on the upside in the short term,” said analysts at Barclays Capital in a new report. “Nonetheless, physical demand is still robust,” they said, noting signals of strength in Japan and India ahead of next month’s wedding season.
