Soft jobs report sent investors toward safety plays
Bullion prices ended little higher at Comex on Friday, 05 September 2014. Gold prices traded moderately higher in the immediate aftermath of a significantly weaker-than-expected U.S. employment report. The Labor Department's employment situation report for August was significantly downbeat Friday morning. Gold prices closed slightly higher on Friday, but gave up most of the gains that came immediately after a soft jobs report sent investors toward safety plays.
Gold for December delivery settled up 80 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $1,267.30 an ounce.
December silver rose 2 cents to $19.16 an ounce.
Non-farm payrolls came in at up 142,000 in the month, which is well below the forecasts calling growth to be up 220,000 in August. The overall unemployment rate declined slightly in August, to 6.1%, which was in line with expectations.
Thursday's move by the European Central Bank to reduce its already extremely low interest rate and also the initiation of quantitative easing sunk the Euro currency to a 13-month low. Meantime, growing ideas the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue to wind down its QE and even start to raise interest rates as early as the first quarter of 2015 have boosted the U.S. dollar index to a 13-month high.
In overnight news, the European Union's second-quarter gross domestic product report showed a growth rate of 0.0% from the first quarter, and up 0.7% year-on-year, which was in line with expectations and continues a theme of downbeat economic data coming out of the world's third-largest economy.
On the geopolitical front there have been no major, markets-moving developments this week. The Russia-Ukraine stand-off continues to be closely monitored for any escalation.
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