Gold extends slide, $1200 in sight

The selling pressure surrounding the precious metal remains high on Thursday amid rising expectations of a Fed move at its next meeting on March 15. At the moment, Gold is retreating 0.5% at $1202.75, just a tad above its daily low of $1201.44.

U.S. Treasury yields & USD

Rising U.S Treasury yields help the greenback erase its losses following the hawkish comments from Draghi. On Thursday, the 10-year yield broke above 2.60% to its highest levels since mid-December, while the 2-year Treasury yield touched its highest levels since August 2009. After recovering from 101.70, DXY is still losing 0.24% on the day at 101.85 as the investors are getting ready for tomorrow's NFP data.

Although today's data from Labor Department showed that weekly jobless claims rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 243,000 for the week ended March 4, a separate report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that in February, U.S. employers announced plans to cut 36,957 jobs, a 40% decline compared to February 2016, confirming the strength of the labor market. Tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls data is expected to show a gain of 190,000 from January's 227,000. Nevertheless, ADP and Challenger reports show that the probability for a surprise on the upside has increased.

Levels to watch

Technical supports for the precious metal are aligned at $1200 (psychological level), $1195 (Jan. 19 low) and $1185 (Fib. 50% of late Dec. to late Feb. uptrend). On the upside, the first hurdle lines up at $1221 (50-DMA), followed by $1230 (Fib. 23.6%) and $1237 (20-DMA).