Precious metals higher before ADP data

New York (Feb 5)  Both gold and silver have advanced in commodities markets today (February 5th), ahead of the release of the ADP employment report.

This will show how many jobs were created in the American private sector last month and this comes ahead of the more comprehensive non-farm payrolls (NFP) report on Friday.

Analysts closely scrutinise the ADP figures in an effort to predict the likely NFP result, which is known to have a significant impact on the Federal Reserve's policy decisions.

Following a weak result in January, it is thought a further reading well below the consensus estimate may be enough to see policymakers opt to pause the bank's tapering of its quantitative easing programme.

After declining by 0.69 per cent yesterday, gold for April delivery was up by 0.5 per cent to $1,257.30 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Silver for settlement in March added one per cent to $19.61 per ounce.

(Source:  One Financial Markets)