Precious metals end on a firmer note

Gold advances for fourth straight session

Gold and silver gave up some of their gains, but still ended the session higher on Wednesday, 02 July 2014 at Comex. Gold futures on Wednesday found some support, as traders stretched the metal's price advance to a fourth session in a row, reluctant to sell the precious metal ahead of Thursday's much-anticipated monthly U.S. jobs report and a long holiday weekend.

August gold futures tacked on $4.30, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,330.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices tallied a gain of nearly $10 an ounce over the past three trading sessions.

September silver also rose 18.5 cents, or 0.9%, to end at $21.30 an ounce.

It's a holiday-shortened trading week in the U.S., what with the Independence Day holiday on Friday. The key U.S. jobs report is issued a day early this month, on Thursday. This report is arguably the most important U.S. economic data of the month. The stronger ADP jobs report sets the table for an upbeat reading for the Labor Department's employment report on Thursday morning. The non-farm payroll employment figure of that report is forecast to come in at up 215,000 in June. Also on Thursday will be the monthly monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank. No changes in ECB monetary policy are expected. It will be an extra important trading day on Thursday.

In overnight trading, Asian and European stock markets followed the U.S. stock market higher on Wednesday, despite some more downbeat economic data from the European Union and China. The EU's producer prices fell 0.1% in May from April, and were down 1.0% on the year.

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