At 11:45 a.m. ET, spot gold increased 1.5% to $1,861.24 an ounce after declining by almost the same percentage point the previous day. In New York, US gold futures increased 1.4% to trade at $1,866.40 per ounce.

The most recent US Labor Department data revealed that non-farm payrolls increased by 223,000 jobs for the month of December 2022, which contributed to gold’s recovery.

In addition, US services industry activity shrank in December for the first time in almost three years, providing further proof that inflation was slowing.

According to David Meger, director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures, “we did get kind of a Goldilocks figure for the jobs report this morning… that is, we had a headline jobs number somewhat better than forecasts, but we did see a slowing in pay growth.”