Investing.com – Gold futures eked out marginal gains in Asian trade Thursday, as dealers locked in profits following a 2.5% gain in the previous day’s session, and the precious metal registered a 12% rise in the month of August, its strongest showing since November 2009.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for October delivery traded at USD1,825.55 a troy ounce during early Asian trade, up 0.07%.
Earlier in the day, payroll processing firm ADP reported that non-farm private employment in the U.S. rose less than expected to a seasonally adjusted 91,000 in August.
The August figure follows a 109,000 gain in July and fell short of market expectations of an increase to 103,000.
The poor labor numbers came at the heels of the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s August policy meeting, where some members favored the introduction of further action to boost the economy, including the purchasing of additional government debt.
Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said that the central bank should consider additional stimulus measures unless the U.S. economy shows significant improvement.
Evans added that the Federal Reserve’s bond buying measures “need to stay in place until unemployment drops below 7% or inflation gets past 3%.”
Elsewhere, People’s Bank of China adviser Xia Bin told the China Business News that the country should shore up reserves of gold and other commodities.
“China should realize that gold is an important strategic reserve, and should increase its holdings over the long term,” Xia said in a Dow Jones newswire report, adding, “In the past we have not established this as an investment principle, but now we must.”
China and India are the world’s largest consumers of gold.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for December delivery added 0.08% to trade at USD41.65 a troy ounce, while copper for December delivery fell 0.11% to trade at USD4.197 a pound.