Healthy weekly gains though
Bullion prices ended higher on Friday, 07 February 2014. Gold futures on Friday tallied a third-straight session climb as investors mulled the U.S. labor data's potential influence on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. Metals trimmed gains as U.S. equities climbed in the wake of the data.
Gold for April delivery rose $5.70, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,262.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract was up 1.9% from its close a week ago. Prices for the precious metal had risen by more than $14 an ounce immediately after the jobs report, then trimmed over half that gain as U.S. equities climbed and investors saw some upbeat aspects to the report.
March silver which was also buoyed by the data, briefly turned south, but settled up almost a cent at $19.936 an ounce. It saw a sizable gain of 4.3% for the week.
Friday's economic data was limited to just two reports. Nonfarm payrolls added only 113,000 jobs in January. That was up from a 75,000 (from 74,000) gain in December, but well below the consensus expectation of a 175,000 gain. Even though the claims data have shown improvements in labor conditions and a clear decline in layoff trends, it has not translated into employers hiring more workers. The construction sector actually added 48,000 new jobs in January, which was the most new jobs since 80,000 jobs were added in March 2007. Total private payrolls added 142,000 jobs in January, up from an 89,000 gain in December. The consensus expected private payrolls to increase by 161,000. The unemployment rate fell to 6.6% from 6.7% while the consensus expected the rate to remain at 6.7%.
Separately, the consumer credit report for December showed credit growth of $18.80 billion while the consensus expected the reading to come in at $11.50 billion. The prior month's reading was revised higher to $12.40 billion from $12.30 billion.
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