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(Kitco News) - The gold market is holding on to modest gains even as the U.S. labor market remains healthy, with the number of jobs available rising more than expected.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, increased to 10.10 million on the last day of May, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Wednesday.
The data beat expectations as economists were looking for job openings to drop to 9.41 million.
The gold market is not seeing much reaction to the latest labor market data as prices continue to bounce from Tuesday's two-month low. June gold futures last traded at $1,962.40 an ounce, up 0.22% on the day.
However, the gold market is holding on to gains, despite some bullish momentum in the U.S. dollar following the latest labor market data.
According to some analysts, the increase in job openings shows a relatively healthy labor market, even in the face of rising interest rates. They have said that the latest report will provide further support for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again in June.
Rate hike expectations have jumped in reaction to the labor market data. The CME FedWatch Tool shows markets see a more than 73% chance of another 25 basis point kike next month.
The Federal Reserve has been paying close attention to the JOLTS report as chair Jerome Powell has been clear that the committee needs to see a weaker labor market before they are confident they have inflation under control and pause their aggressive monetary policy stance.
