As of 5:05 PM EDT gold futures basis, the most active December 2021 Comex contract is trading down $7.80 and fixed at $1790.70. This is the second consecutive day that we have seen a decline in pricing, although yesterday was a much more dramatic decline than today’s modest selloff.

On Friday, September 3, gold prices moved dramatically higher after the U.S. Labor Department released its jobs report for the month of August. Economists polled by Dow Jones and Bloomberg were anticipating that there would be an additional 700,000 to 750,000 new jobs added last month. However, the actual numbers came in far below the estimates, with the U.S.

The August job report was released today by the U.S. Labor Department is a game-changer. It clearly shows that the economic recovery, which had been strong, has taken at least one or two steps backward. This is directly due to the onset of the delta variant, which is much more transmissive has now encompassed the globe affecting millions upon millions of lives.

Unquestionably, tomorrow’s release of the U.S. Labor Department’s jobs report for August will be a critical component that will shape and determine adjustments to the current monetary policy of the Federal Reserve. It will be the last report the Federal Reserve will use to determine their monetary policy at this month’s FOMC meeting.

Gold pricing has remained fairly stable and continues to trade above $1800 per ounce. The clear break in gold occurred on Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at the virtual Economic Symposium. Last Friday’s dynamic surge in gold took the precious yellow metal from its opening price of $1795 top close at approximately $1820.

The most recent Commitment of Traders (COT), which is published every Friday and lags one week behind real-time data, indicated that there has recently been a shift in market sentiment amongst money managers. The shift I am referring to is that the most recent report derived from data collected for the week of August 24.

The Kansas City Fed sponsored Friday’s virtual speech with Chairman Powell at the Economic Symposium. There he indicated that the Federal Reserve had changed their demeanor to a more dovish stance concerning the onset to taper their monthly $120 billion asset purchases of U.S. Treasuries ($80 billion) and MBS or mortgage-backed securities ($40 billion).

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke virtually at the economic symposium, a yearly event hosted by the Kansas City Fed. Traders and market participants have awaited his speech to glean more insight into the current sentiment of the Federal Reserve as it pertains to their highly accommodative monetary policy.

Tomorrow traders and investors will get more clarity and insight as chairman Jerome Powell speaks at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium virtually. As of 6:01 PM EST gold futures basis the most active December 2021 Comex contract is fixed at $1794.50 which is approximately $0.70 below the effective close in New York as gold now trades in Australia.

Gold prices fell sharply today after yesterday’s attempt to trade and close above both the long-term 200-day and interim term 100-day moving averages. This might have prompted short-term traders to pull profits after Monday’s price surge, which took gold prices back above $1800 per ounce.