Gold Price Drops Sharply as Strong US Jobs Data Fuels Rate Hike Expectations
The gold price dropped sharply on Friday after the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released stronger-than-expected jobs data, which fueled expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this month.
The non-farm payrolls expanded by 162,000 last month, almost three times Wall Street's consensus prediction. As a result, traders raised the odds of a September rate rise from the Fed to 3-in-5 and increased their end-2026 consensus back near 4.00%.
The gold price sank $90 per ounce in just three minutes before recovering above $4400, while silver prices also declined. The Dollar rallied on the currency market, US stock market futures slipped, and the price of US Treasury bonds fell, pushing up the interest rate on 10-year debt towards Thursday's peak.