Gold Slips Ahead Of US Jobs Data

Gold dipped on Friday to hover below the $1,800 mark as the dollar firmed in the run-up to the U.S. employment report due later in the day, which is expected to show healthy growth in July.

Spot gold dropped 0.4 percent to $1,798.21 per ounce and was on course for its worst week since mid-June. U.S. gold futures were down half a percent at $1,799.45.

The U.S. non-farm payrolls report is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists currently expect the report to show employment surged up by 870,000 jobs in July after an increase of 850,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate is expected to dip to 5.7 percent from 5.9 percent.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday that the U.S. economic recovery is progressing rapidly and the Fed would be able to pull back on accommodative monetary policy potentially sooner than others think.

Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari flagged risks from the delta virus variant, while Senator Joe Manchin urged Chair Jerome Powell to pare back economic stimulus to avoid stoking inflation.

Higher interest rates raise the opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing gold.

The American Resistance Leader Executed on Hitler’s Orders

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By Madeleine Schwartz

ALL THE FREQUENT TROUBLES OF OUR DAYS
The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler
By Rebecca Donner

Oil Prices Rise In Cautious Trade

Oil prices rose on Friday but were on track for their biggest weekly loss since October on worries about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in top consumers U.S. and China. Rising tensions in the Middle East provided a floor under the market.

Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.6 percent to $71.69 per barrel, but were down nearly 6 percent for the week. Similarly, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up half a percent at $69.44 and were on track for a 6 percent weekly loss.

China has imposed new restrictions on travel in a bid to curb the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Japan’s cumulative total of coronavirus cases has topped 1 million as the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread in many parts of the country.

South Korea has extended its social distancing curbs by two weeks across most part of the country.

From Indonesia and Malaysia to Thailand and Bangladesh, countries across Asia have detected Delta in their communities.

In the United States, daily new COVID-19 cases have climbed to a six-month high, with more than 100,000 infections reported nationwide.

At least 46 cities have advised against travelling, and authorities have suspended flights and stopped public transport, raising concerns about fuel demand.

‘If He Doesn’t Have That Stroke, He’s in the Hall of Fame’

For five seasons in the late 1970s, J.R. Richard of the Houston Astros was as intimidating as any pitcher before or since. His legacy is the reverence of the batters who faced him.

By Tyler Kepner

J.R. Richard never faded. His next to last start was at the All-Star Game in 1980. He was 30 years old, at the apex of his powers, when it all went away. He was the Sandy Koufax of his generation.

Dominion Energy Affirms FY21 Operating Earnings Outlook – Quick Facts

While reporting financial results for the second quarter on Friday, Dominion Energy, Inc. (D) affirmed its operating earnings guidance for the full-year 2021, and provided operating earnings outlook for the third quarter.

For fiscal 2021, the company continues to project operating earnings in a range of $3.70 to $4.00 per share. On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $3.87 per share for the year. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Dominion Energy also expects third quarter operating earnings in the range of $0.95 to $1.10 per share, while the Street is looking for earnings of $1.15 per share for the quarter.

The company also said it affirms its long-term earnings and dividend growth guidance.

Mary Trump Reveals Her Uncle’s Callous Comment That ‘Sent A Chill Down My Spine’

Mary Trump said she had a very visceral reaction to one particular line that her uncle, Donald Trump, said during his time in office.

The ex-president’s niece said hearing her uncle downplay the soaring COVID-19 death toll in September 2020 to Axios’ Jonathan Swan with the line “it is what it is” sent “a chill down my spine,” per an excerpt from her new book, “The Reckoning,” that was published by Insider on Thursday.

It was “a popular expression in my family” and “whenever my grandfather, my aunt, or one of my uncles had said it, it was always with a cruel indifference to somebody else in despair,” she wrote, per Insider.

“Donald had said it to me at my grandparents’ house in Queens when I’d asked him why my grandfather insisted that my father’s ashes were to be buried in the family plot instead of scattered off the coast of Montauk, as he’d wanted,” she recalled. Mary Trump’s father, Fred Trump Jr., died in 1981 when she was 16.

“It is what it is, honeybunch,” her uncle reportedly replied.

Mary Trump has become a fierce critic of her relative, once saying he had “blood on his hands” and was “directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans” because of his catastrophic handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week, she suggested he may run for president again in 2024.

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