(Kitco News) - The gold market continues to face technical selling pressure even as the U.S. private-sector labor market struggles, according to the latest employment report from private-payroll processor ADP.
On Wednesday, ADP announced that 41,000 jobs were created last month. The report was weaker than expected, as consensus forecasts had called for job gains of 49,000. The increase follows a loss of 29,000 jobs in November.
“Small establishments recovered from November job losses with positive end-of-year hiring, even as large employers pulled back,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.
The latest employment data has had little impact on gold, as the precious metal continues to see technical selling pressure following a strong start to the new year.
Spot gold last traded at $4,436.30 an ounce, down 1.26% on the day.
Along with modest job gains, the report noted stable wages. The report said that for workers who stayed in their jobs, their wages were unchanged at 4.4%; at the same time, for workers to changed jobs, their wages increased 6.6%, up from 6.3% in November.
