After analyzing the latest trading data of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, analysts said that significant uncertainty about the state of the labor market prompted hedge funds and money managers to be cautious about the gold market.

Some analysts noted that the gold market remained motionless for most of July, waiting for a change in US monetary policy. The same trend continued last week due to expectations of Friday's employment data. Economists noted that a stronger-than-expected report on the number of jobs in the non-agricultural sector could lay the groundwork for the Federal Reserve to reduce its monthly bond-buying program.

The CFTC's disaggregated report on traders ' obligations showed that financial managers reduced their speculative long positions on Comex on gold futures by 1,285 contracts, to 132,920 contracts. At the same time, short positions increased by 1,642 contracts, to 43,047 contracts.

The net length of gold now stands at 89,873 contracts, almost unchanged for the second week in a row.

Despite the fact that the gold market remained relatively calm during the survey period, investors will now have to wait until the end of the week to see how much damage was done to bullish sentiment towards gold after Friday's sell-off and the sudden collapse on Sunday evening.

It is noteworthy that gold prices sharply declined to a new low for the year at $ 1,677 per ounce at the beginning of the Asian trading session on Sunday evening. And although prices have recovered after the sudden collapse, the market is still under pressure. December gold futures last traded at $ 1,727 per ounce, down about 2% on the day.

As in the gold market, financial managers were hesitant to have any large positions in silver, covering their bearish bets before Friday's employment data.

A detailed report showed that speculative long positions on Comex for silver futures increased by only 32 contracts, to 50,878 contracts. At the same time, short positions fell by 4,452 contracts, to 25,468 contracts.

The net length of silver is 25,410 contracts, which is 21% more than in the previous week. During the study period, prices plummeted below $ 25.50 per ounce.