Gold inches lower as equities rally after U.S. jobs data

By Eileen Soreng

(Reuters) - Gold prices inched down on Monday pressured by a stronger equity market, with the latest U.S. jobs report easing fears of inflation and faster U.S. rate hikes, reviving risk appetite globally.

Spot gold edged lower 0.1 percent to $1,322.10 per ounce at 0734 GMT. U.S. gold futures for April delivery fell 0.1 percent to $1,322.60 per ounce.

"A rally in stocks has taken some shine from the precious metals ... Not much fund is flowing into gold," said a Hong Kong-based trader.

Inflation worries faded after U.S. data on Friday showed nonfarm payrolls jumped by 313,000 jobs last month, but annual growth in average hourly earnings slowed to 2.6 percent after a spike in January.

A relief rally swept across Asian share markets on Monday in the wake of the jobs report.

Money market traders stuck to bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates three times this year, with only around a one-in-four chance seen for a fourth rate hike in 2018.

"The labour report that we saw in the U.S. on Friday has spilled over into this week ... Slowdown in the growth of wages last month has certainly eased concerns about more aggressive rate hikes," said ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes.

Inflation concerns generally boost gold, which is seen as a safe-haven against rising prices. But expectations the Fed could raise interest rates to fight inflation make gold less attractive because it is not interest-yielding.

"We still are somewhat wary on gold short-term as we suspect that the precious metal will struggle on account of a stronger dollar, which we expect to start perking up as we head closer to the (next) Fed meeting," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note. The central bank is due to meet from March 20.

Spot gold may revisit its March 9 low of $1,312.99 per ounce, as suggested by a double-top and a retracement analysis, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

Meanwhile, speculators raised their net long position in gold by 4,178 contracts to 161,812 contracts, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed.

Among other precious metals, silver was down 0.3 percent at $16.55 per ounce.

Palladium was 0.2 percent lower at $993.40 per ounce, while platinum fell 0.1 percent to $963.40 per ounce.

(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford and Gopakumar Warrier)