The US jobs report for August was just released, which includes economic indicators that investors and experts are awaiting to evaluate the US labor market and predict the Fed’s decision at its next meeting. Average hourly wages were lower than expectations on a monthly and annual basis, while the change in jobs outside the agricultural sector was higher than expected, the result being 187 thousand jobs, and the unemployment rate was higher than expected at 3.8%.
As we can see, the indicators are conflicting. The unemployment rate and average wages were not good, which means that the labor sector is shrinking and is affected by the policy of the Federal Reserve Bank, which continued to raise interest rates for a long period, but at the same time, the change in jobs increased, and this discrepancy adds some Uncertainty over the Fed’s next decision on interest rates.
In the stock market during the European session, the German DAX index fell by 23 points and then trended upward, the British FTSE index advanced 46 points, and the pan-European STOXX 600 index also rose by 1.19 points.
In the gold market, the precious metal in spot contracts continued to rise, now recording a price of $1946.51 per ounce, thus reaching its highest level in more than three weeks.
As for the dollar index, we found that it did not move significantly after the release of the US jobs report. Today, it tends to decline and is now recording a price of 103.33 against the basket of major currencies.
In the metals market, gold in futures contracts records a price of $1,975 per ounce, silver records a price of $25.04, and copper records a price of $3.85.
