Friday's Jobs Data May Tilt Fed's Hand On September Rate Hikes Says Analyst

KITCO NEWS -- As markets await August’s U.S. employment report, Kitco News speaks with senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff to see if he expects gold to remain volatile at the end of the week. The non-farm payrolls data is due for release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Friday and consensus forecasts are calling for 220,000 jobs to have been created last in August. ‘Tomorrow’s U.S. jobs data is one of the more important pieces of information ahead of the September [Federal Open Market Committee] FOMC meeting,' Wyckoff said. 'It could tilt the Fed’s hand on whether it will raise rates in September…or beyond.' However, Wyckoff said he is very focused on crude oil to determine gold’s next move. 'There are early technical clues that the crude oil market has put in a bottom,' he noted. ‘If that is the case, that’s very good news for the precious metals, and the rest of the raw commodity sector, because crude oil is the leader, and if it bottoms out the others are likely to follow.’ Wyckoff also commented on silver’s dip to multi-year lows and said the long-term technicals still remain bearish. Kitco spot silver was last quoted down 0.03% at $14.71 an ounce. 'But if you look at longer term price chart and you get below $15, I suspect that there is certainly more upside potential than downside potential for silver at that price level,' he said, adding that if the price continues to drop, deflation will become a major worry for the global economy.