New Delhi, June 6 -- The number that mattered most to gold traders on Friday was not the price of the metal. It was 172,000 - the number of jobs the American economy added in May, nearly double what Wall Street had forecast. Within an hour of that figure crossing the wire, spot gold was trading around $4,370 per ounce, its lowest reading since late March, and the debate over whether the Federal Reserve would cut rates at all in 2026 had effectively ended for the near term.

which also revised April's payrolls sharply upward to 179,000 from an initial reading of 115,000, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3% - delivered a blow of a different kind. It did not merely pressure gold. It broke the chart.

The 200-day simple moving ave...