Gold rises above $1,700 as market approaches US jobs data By Reuters

By Arundhati Sarkar

Sept 2 (Reuters) – Gold rose above the psychologically important $1,700 level on Friday as the dollar paused as investors awaited key US jobs data, amid expectations that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive policy will continue in the coming months.

* As of 1111 GMT, spot gold was up 0.5% to $1,704.90 an ounce. So far this week, it is down about 2%, after hitting a six-week low of $1,687.60 on Thursday.

* US gold futures rose 0.4 percent to $ 1716.30.

“We’ve seen a slight drop in the dollar which is lifting gold, but the metal doesn’t have much room for a bounce as markets put a big hike in interest rates,” said Carlo Alberto de Casa, outside analyst at KinesisMoney. .

“Investors want to know how serious the Fed is, and strong jobs data will put more pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates, which is negative for gold,” he added.

* The index fell 0.3 percent, but it is still close to the highest level in 20 years recorded in the previous session.

* After a series of recent economic data from the US confirmed that its economy is not heading towards a recession, investors are now waiting for the August Non-Farm Payrolls report at 1230 GMT.

* In other precious metals, the spot price rose 0.6% to $17.9473 an ounce. It rose 0.5% to $832.87; It added 2.1% to $2,053.98.

(Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar and Elaine Suring in Bengaluru; Editing in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)