Gold News

Gold Ends Friday 0.5% Higher as US Jobs Data Sinks, Fed Looks to Bigger Rate Cut

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold curiously dipped as low as $899.17 on Friday following the release of a worse than expected US jobs report that sent the Dollar lower, but the Gold Market soon rallied back higher and ended at its high of the session with a gain of 0.45%.

For the week Gold Prices lost 2.3% as the Dow climbed 3.2% and 10-year US bond yields rose 43-basis points to 3.4%.

Silver dropped to as low as $17.22 Friday morning but it also rallied back higher for the rest of the day and ended near its high of $17.745 with an impressive gain of 1.8% for the session and a loss of 0.9% for the week.

The Gold Price in Euros remained at about €578, platinum gained $20 to $2005, and copper gained over 5 cents to about $3.95. Gold and silver equities rose about 1% at the open and remained near their highs into the close.

The BLS net birth/death adjustment to the Non-Farm Payrolls report added 142,000 jobs to the Feb. figure, but that was not enough to halt the third straight monthly decline in US employment.

Payrolls in prior months were also revised lower to -152,000 in January and February compared to the previous reading of -85,000. The Unemployment Rate rose to 5.1%, its highest since September 2005.

Also making economic news Friday was a poll by the New York Times reporting that 81% of Americans feel the country is heading in the wrong direction.

The US Dollar index fell and Treasuries rose on the weaker than expected jobs data that also dragged the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P lower at the open.

But the three indices rose to find small gains by early afternoon and held near unchanged into the close as traders found it more likely that the Federal Reserve will cut by 50 basis points, rather than just the already assumed 25 basis points, at their next meeting at the end of the month.

Oil rose over 2% on refinery problems and that lower Dollar, while gasoline made another new record high above $3.30.

Next week’s economic highlights include US Consumer Credit on Monday, Pending Home Sales and FOMC Minutes on Tuesday, Wholesale Inventories on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, the Trade Balance and Treasury Budget on Thursday, and Export and Import Prices and Michigan Sentiment on Friday.

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Adrian Ash

Adrian Ash, BullionVault Gold News

Adrian Ash is director of research at BullionVault, the world-leading physical gold, silver and platinum market for private investors online. Formerly head of editorial at London's top publisher of private-investment advice, he was City correspondent for The Daily Reckoning from 2003 to 2008, and he has now been researching and writing daily analysis of precious metals and the wider financial markets for over 20 years. A frequent guest on BBC radio and television, Adrian is regularly quoted by the Financial Times, MarketWatch and many other respected news outlets, and his views from inside the bullion market have been sought by the Economist magazine, CNBC, Bloomberg, Germany's Handelsblatt and FAZ, plus Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore.

See the full archive of Adrian Ash articles on GoldNews.

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