(Kitco News) – Ahead of today’s non-farm payroll release, the median analyst consensus stands at 550k. Last time out the reading beast consensus estimates of 450K to reach 531K another good reading. The price of gold shot up at the last reading on 5th November from close to $1800/oz to $1879.5/oz over the course of the next 10 days or so. This time around gold is stuck at around $1772.50/oz much lower than it was at the last reading.
Analyst calls:
Lloyds Bank: “We look for another increase in employment of over 500k, and a fall in the unemployment rate to a new pandemic low of 4.5%. Also of interest will be the November ISM survey for services, which is expected to reaffirm a solid pace of expansion and elevated price pressures.”
ING Bank: “Nonfarm Payrolls are expected to post another sizeable increase of over 500K – we expect 550K – given that we know there is unsatiated demand out there for workers and we are hopeful that the supply of potential staff is increasing.”
Deutsche Bank: “We are looking for NFP to grow by +600K, which would be the fastest pace of job growth since July, and that in turn would take the unemployment rate down to a post-pandemic low of 4.4%.
The 4-hour chart below highlights some of the important levels leading into the NFP data release this afternoon. The market is currently at the purple resistant zone which has been tested four times on the chart alone. The next support level is marked in red and was used as a support zone just before the last NFP release in November. On the upside, there are a number of important resistance levels. The next one is the upward sloping trendline and beyond that, the red horizontal line represents the volume point of control. The price has been there for a long time and it seems to be a magnetic area for gold.