Gold remained choppy last night, trading either side of unchanged in a range of $1330.35 - $1337.15. It rose to $1336 against a drop in S&P futures (2837) during early Asian time after the White House said it still intended to impose tariffs on Mexican imports Monday - amid prior reports it was considering an extension.  The yellow metal declined during the rest of Asian time and into early European hours, fading strength in the US dollar (DX from 96.98 – 97.18).  The greenback was supported by softness in the yuan (PBOC Gov Gang says plenty of room for monetary policy easing), the yen (108.30 – 108.61, risk on, weaker Japanese Leading Index) and euro ($1.1280 - $1.1250, weaker German Industrial Production and Exports).  Gold recovered to make its $1337.15 high during later European hours, helped by a pullback in the DX (97.02), with some position squaring seen ahead of the US Jobs Report. Global equities were firmer and a headwind for gold, helped by comments from the White House that “significant progress was being made” on the US-Mexico immigration / tariff talks.  The NIKKEI was up 0.5%, the SCI was closed, European markets were up from 0.8% to 1.5%, and S&P futures were +0.3%.  A continued rebound in the beleaguered oil market (WTI from $52.92 - $53.83, Saudis look to extend production cuts into 2nd half of year) was supportive of stocks. 

At 8:30 AM, the US Payroll Report was much weaker than expected.  Non-Farm Payrolls were only up 75k (exp. 175k), with downward revisions to the last two months totaling 75k, and Average Hourly Earnings also missed (0.2% vs. exp. 0.3%).  The soft report immediately stoked hopes of a more aggressive response from the Fed, with FedWatch showing significant increases in the probability...

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