US Private Payrolls Growth Slows to Weakest Since January; Global Gold Rebounds Above $4,360

US payroll processor ADP said on Wednesday, 2 September 2026 (11 Shahrivar 1405), that private employers added just 38,000 jobs in August, below the roughly 47,000 analysts had expected and down from an upwardly revised 46,000 in July. According to CNBC, it was the smallest monthly job gain since January. Most of the growth came from three sectors, education and health services (45,000), leisure and hospitality (16,000) and construction (12,000), while manufacturing shed 17,000 positions and professional and business services lost 16,000. The government's official nonfarm payrolls report is due Friday, with markets expecting a gain of 53,000 and the unemployment rate holding at 4.1 percent.

Following the release, global gold climbed back above $4,360 an ounce in Wednesday trading, recovering from a near one month low touched earlier in the same session, as the dollar index and US Treasury yields pulled back from recent highs. Markets are now awaiting Friday's official jobs report for further clues on the Federal Reserve's policy path, a channel that feeds through the dollar index and the global gold ounce into Iran's own dollar and gold prices.