Support
Strong fluctuations dominate global markets after jobs data
The mixed performance of US jobs data supports gold
Gold rises during today's trading after the issuance of US employment data
Oil is heading for a weekly decline amid fears of raising US interest rates
Positive growth data in Britain, exceeding market expectations
Gold prices
The yellow metal witnessed some rise during today's trading, to record $1843 an ounce, as US dollar index and bond yields fell. Today's data showed that the US labor market added 311 thousand of jobs, while the unemployment rate increased from 3.4% to 3.6%.
Also in this context, gold witnessed some support due to the decline in US Treasury bond yields, as US bond yields for 10 years recorded a decline of about 1.74% at 3.855 points, while US bond yields for 20 years decreased by 1.54%, to record about 4.0182 points, and this, in turn, Boosted the rise in gold prices.
The Bank of Japan sticks to its accommodative policy
In the second meeting of the year, the members of the Bank of Japan decided this morning to keep monetary policy unchanged at -10 basis points and also kept the 10-year Japanese bond yield control program unchanged at 0.00% and to maintain the upper limit allowed for bond yields at 0.50%.
It is the last meeting led by the current Governor of the Bank of Japan, "Kuroda", before his retirement and the new governor, "Kazuo Ueda" after he continued to pursue an accommodative monetary policy to support the economy.
In this regard, growth data also issued in Japan, where the GDP reading recorded stronger-than-expected growth at 1.1% in 2022.
Oil prices
Crude oil prices fell for the fourth consecutive session, heading to record the largest weekly loss in more than a month, due to fears of further hikes in US interest rates, which would harm fuel demand, as it recorded a decline today by 0.75%, at $75.01 a barrel.
In this context, too, investors are closely watching the decline in exports from Russia, which decided to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March.
The sterling rises after positive growth data:
The sterling witnessed a significant increase against the US dollar during today's trading, to record $1.12040, up by 0.50%. These increases came after positive GDP data.
In this context, data released this morning in Britain showed gross domestic product growth monthly by 0.3%, outperforming market expectations that indicated the growth of the British economy by 0.1%, and it is also better than the previous reading, which had recorded a contraction of 0.5%.
