Gold is expected to largely hold on to its recent gains next week, within its current range, respondents to the S&P Global Platts Gold Sentiment Survey said Friday, as prices slipped from 12-week highs following strong US job numbers.
Gold was down $10 on the day at around $1,215/oz at 1400 GMT Friday as data from the US Labor Department showed 227,000 jobs were created in January, exceeding Wall Street expectations.
At the same time, wage growth was shown at 2.5% in the first month of the new Trump presidency, a slowdown from 2.8% in December.
The US Dollar Index was largely flat on the day after the news, just under 99.90 at 1400 GMT, reflecting the mixed signals from Friday's report and recent US economic data.
Gold has been supported by a weak dollar and growing risk aversion to the new US administration, the greenback falling to its lowest level this week since the November 9 US election.
"The combination of accusations of currency exploitation to a major trading partner from the new administration, weaker data, lower USD and bond yields, and a drop in equities, proved tailor made for a healthy gold rally," HSBC's James Steel said this week, referring to accusations from President Donald Trump and his senior advisers over currency manipulation of the euro and yen.
At the same time, a presidential order imposing a temporary ban of citizens from seven largely Muslim countries entering the US resulted in strong criticism in the US and elsewhere, highlighting "once again how erratic and unpredictable [Trump's] policy is," Commerzbank said this week.
Gold was also able to find support from the decision by the US Federal Reserve to leave US interest rates unchanged this month, as widely expected.
The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee left the federal funds target range at 0.5-0.75% in a unanimous decision, adding that it expected to see inflation rise to 2% following improvements in consumer and business sentiment.
It helped gold above $1,243/oz Thursday, its highest since mid-November.
Overall, respondents to Platts survey expect movements in the dollar and US economic data to remain central to gold prices next week, with the average forecast at $1,180-$1,230/oz.
Elsewhere, the Indian gold market reacted overall positively to the 2017 Union Budget announced Wednesday, with no changes in import duty or sales taxes. Many in India's gold market had lobbied for a reduction in the current import duty to 8% or even 6%, from 10% to help boost an industry that recorded, in 2016, its lowest level of physical demand in nearly a decade.
But overall, market participants were glad to see no surprise regulatory changes and premiums were reported up to $2-3/oz this week from largely flat before the budget.
Chinese markets were officially closed for the Lunar New Year holidays this week, but premiums remained unchanged $15/oz.
