By FXEmpire.com

Analysis and Recommendations:

Gold is trading at 1642.05 making back some of the losses from yesterday. Gold still is without any direction after the government reported that the U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April, fewer than economists expected, but job gains for February and March were revised higher.

Just a heads up since gold is volatile and will react to most economic indicators we will begin to post the daily calendar with events that could affect the price of gold. The gold price is sensitive to a number of scheduled U.S. and Euro area macroeconomic announcements–including retail sales, non-farm payrolls, and inflation. Gold’s high sensitivity to real interest rates and its unique role as a safe-haven and store of value typically leads to a counter-cyclical reaction to surprise news, in contrast to their commodities. It also shows a particularly high sensitivity to negative surprises that might lead financial investors to become more risk averse.

These results have a number of implications. To reduce the uncertainty of the return on gold transactions, traders may wish to time their orders flow so as to avoid the release of information that has been shown to affect prices. For longer-term market participants, these results provide confirmation of the pro-cyclical bias of many commodities and gold’s role as a safe-haven during periods of economic uncertainty.

Economic events for May4, 2012 actual v. forecast

GBP

Halifax House Price Index (MoM)

-2.4%

-0.5%

2.2%

CHF

Retail Sales (YoY)

4.2%

1.2%

0.8%

NOK

Norwegian Unemployment Rate

3.20%

3.20%

3.20%

EUR

Retail Sales (MoM)

0.3%

0.3%

-0.2%

USD

Average Hourly Earnings (MoM)

0.0%

0.2%

0.2%

USD

Nonfarm Payrolls

115K

170K

154K

USD

Unemployment Rate

8.1%

8.2%

8.2%

USD

Average Weekly Hours

34.5

34.5

34.5

USD

Private Nonfarm Payrolls

130K

175K

166K

CAD

Ivey PMI

52.7

61.0

63.5

Economic Events for May 7, 2012 for the European and US Markets

05:45 CHF Unemployment Rate 3.1% 3.1%

The Unemployment Rate measures the percentage of the total work force that is unemployed and actively seeking employment during the previous month.

07:15 CHF CPI 0.2% 0.6%

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the change in the price of goods and services from the perspective of the consumer. It is a key way to measure changes in purchasing trends and inflation.

10:00 EUR German Factory Orders 0.5% 0.3%

German Factory Orders measures the change in the total value of new purchase orders placed with manufacturers for both durable and non-durable goods. It is a leading indicator of production.

12:30 CAD Building Permits 7.5%

Building Permits measures the change in the number of new building permits issued by the government. Building permits are a key indicator of demand in the housing market.

Originally posted here