Gold price falls slightly while USD strengthens

The price of gold fell slightly on Thursday morning amid the strengthening of the dollar as markets are waiting for the release of important US statistics on Friday, Report informs.

The price of December futures for gold on the New York Comex exchange fell by $3.75 (0.19%) to $1,971.25 per troy ounce. September silver futures fell 0.61% to $23.727 an ounce.

The dollar index (the exchange rate against a basket of currencies of six US trading partners) is growing by 0.1%, to 102.69 points, a day earlier the figure rose by 0.3%. The appreciation of the dollar makes gold less available to buy in other currencies.

At the same time, investors expect the Friday release of data on the US labor market. Experts predict that unemployment in the country remained at 3.6% in July, and the number of jobs in non-agricultural sectors of the country's economy increased by 200,000 after an growth of 209,000 in June.

These statistics are taken into account by the US Federal Reserve System (Fed) when making decisions on monetary policy. Gold is sensitive to statistics from the US and signals from the Fed on the discount rate, as this affects the dollar.