Investing.com - Gold futures were higher in European trade on Thursday, as market players looked ahead to a raft of speeches from Federal Reserve officials later in the day to judge the balance of opinion among policymakers on the prospect of further rate hikes.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard is due to speak at 15:30GMT, or 11:30AM ET, at Santa Barbara County's Economic Summit. Then San Francisco Fed President John Williams is due to appear at the Hoover Institution's International Monetary Stability Conference.
Bullard and Williams also join a panel at the conference with Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart and Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan.
Gold for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange tacked on $6.70, or 0.53%, to trade at $1,281.25 a troy ounce by 06:53GMT, or 02:53AM ET.
A day earlier, gold dropped $17.40, or 1.35%, amid optimism the U.S. economy could bounce back in the coming months after nearly stalling in the first quarter.
Data released Wednesday showed that the U.S. services sector expanded in April as new orders and employment accelerated. The upbeat report was slightly offset by another showing private U.S. employers hired the fewest number of workers in three years in April.
Later Thursday, the U.S. is to release weekly data on initial jobless claims. Market players are also focusing on Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
The consensus forecast is that the data will show jobs growth of 200,000 last month, following an increase of 215,000 in March, the unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 5.0%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.3% after gaining 0.3% a month earlier.
An upbeat employment report would help support the case for the Fed to steadily tighten monetary policy this year, while a disappointing outcome will push back expectations for higher interest rates.
Gold is sensitive to moves in U.S. interest rates, as a rise would lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion.
Prices of the yellow metal are up nearly 21% so far this year as expectations faded that the Fed would move to normalize interest rates due to fears over a global economic slowdown.
A gradual path to higher rates is seen as less of a threat to gold prices than a swift series of increases.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver futures for May delivery rose 16.9 cents, or 0.98%, to trade at $17.47 a troy ounce during morning hours in London, while copper futures declined 1.6 cents, or 0.71%, to $2.171 a pound.