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By Bloomberg

Gold headed for a third weekly loss, trading near a one-month low, before a U.S. employment report that may provide clues on the timing of interest-rate increases.

Bullion for immediate delivery was at $1,177.85 an ounce at 11:27 a.m. in Singapore from $1,176.89 on Thursday, when it fell as much as 1 percent to $1,173.04, the lowest since May 1, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. The metal dropped 1.1 percent this week. Prices in Shanghai sank to a two-month low.

The data on Friday may show U.S. employers continued to add workers in May, strengthening the case for the Federal Reserve to raise borrowing costs this year. Central bank officials have said they need to see more improvement in the labor market, and be reasonably certain inflation will move back toward the Fed’s 2 percent goal. Higher rates curb gold’s allure as it usually gives returns only through price gains.

“More positive news on the payroll numbers front tonight will excite the U.S. interest rate hawks, and with that the U.S. dollar,” said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, referring to the monthly jobs report from the Labor Department. “A rise in the dollar will likely push the gold price lower.”

The report will probably show employers added 226,000 staff in May compared with 223,000 a month earlier, according to the median of estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Unemployment rate is set to hold at 5.4 percent, the lowest since May 2008, the survey showed. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed on Friday after rising 0.3 percent on Thursday.

Delay Rates

The Fed should delay raising interest rates until the first half of 2016, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday. A stronger dollar, declining oil investment and a West Coast port strike in the first quarter will pull down U.S. growth to 2.5 percent this year, according to the lender. It previously forecast the economy would expand 3.1 percent.

Gold for August delivery added 0.2 percent to $1,177.40 an ounce on the Comex after falling to $1,172.40 on Thursday, the lowest price since May 1. Metal of 99.99 percent purity dropped to 234.80 yuan a gram ($1,176.36 an ounce) on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the lowest since March 23.

Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.3 percent to $16.1965 an ounce after slumping 2.3 percent on Thursday. Platinum was little changed at $1,099.57 an ounce, near a two-month low. While palladium increased 0.2 percent to $757.55 an ounce, it’s still headed for a fourth weekly drop, the longest run of such declines since October.