The price of gold right now is in a tight range on Friday as investors awaited the release of U.S. labor statistics, which could affect the trajectory of the Federal Reserve’s rate hike.

However, thanks to the declining U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury yields, gold is still on track for its best week since March. The spot price of gold an ounce is down 0.28% to $1,706.13.

“We’ll get the U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, and that will be a big moment, as market expectations have shifted lately toward the Fed’s easing of monetary policy,” said Ricardo Evangelista of ActivTrades.

Economists forecast that 250,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. in September. Better-than-expected jobs data will argue for another significant rate hike at the upcoming central bank meeting, analysts said.

“The main obstacle is our expectation that the Fed will continue to raise rates longer than the market predicts, leading to a further strengthening of the U.S. and causing gold and other asset classes to stagnate or fall in value,” said Michael Langford of AirGuide.

“In the short term, we believe gold prices will fall below $1,700 an ounce.”

Earlier we reported that the Dollar is declining again against major world currencies.