following a threeday losing streak the mostactive gold futures contract was trading marginally lower early friday as rising treasury yields and a slightly stronger us dollar continued to put pressure on precious metals prices while traders awaited the release of the july jobs report   gold futures for december delivery gc00 gcz23 fell by 1 or 01 to 196790 per ounce on comex   silver futures for september delivery si00 siu23 fell by 17 cents or 07 to 2352 per ounce   palladium futures for september pau23 fell by 790 or 06 to 1249 per ounce while platinum futures for october plv23 declined by 520 or 06 to 916 per ounce   copper futures for september hgu23 fell by 6 cents or 15 to 384 per pound gold prices were modestly lower ahead of the release of jobs figures for july which economists expected would show the us labor market had continued to expand at a relatively robust pace “gold is on a downward drift as the markets await the latest us jobs figures that should provide more clarity on the health of the world’s largest economy” said rupert rowling a market analyst for kinesis money in emailed commentary