NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- Gold's tug-of-war left prices flat lining Thursday, along with silver and copper, as investor interest waned.
Gold for April delivery was adding $1.70 to $1,333.80 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price today has traded as high as $1,337.10 and as low as $1,327.90. The spot gold price was up 20 cents, according to Kitco's gold index.
The U.S. dollar index was rising 0.54% to $77.51 while the euro shed 0.75% to $1.37 versus the dollar. Although not the primary factor, a stronger dollar was crimping investor interest in gold as the dollar backed commodity became more expensive to buy in other currencies. Spot gold was also struggling from lack of physical demand as Chinese consumers exited the market to celebrate its New Year instead.
Gold prices can't seem to gain any traction to the upside or downside and are holding flat ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs number. Expectations are that the unemployment rate will rise to 9.5% while the private sector will add 163,000 jobs. Weekly initial jobless claims fell 42,000 in the week ending Jan. 29th which is also setting the bar high.
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"The jobs number is going to be good and the stock market will react to the number very positively" says Randall Warren, chief investment officer at Warren Financial Service. Warren says gold will become even less attractive and will continue to lose its luster until the "doomsayers" get out of the market.
The identity crisis for gold stems from its inability to perform as a safe haven asset. Recent violence in Egypt as pro-Mubarak supporters clashed with anti-government protesters is typically a headline that would make gold pop. The spot gold price rallied almost $30 on Friday as the crisis hit the mainstream media.
But better economic data in the U.S. is drawing investor interest away from gold and into stocks. "We are sort of stuck in the middle between this revolutionary situation that we are seeing in North Africa and the Middle East versus improved economic outlook here in the U.S.," says Will Rhind, head of U.S. operations for ETF Securities.
