Bullions end higher on Friday

Gild registers first weekly loss though in four weeks

A weaker-than-expected U.S. July jobs report and a fall in the dollar helped bullion prices move up on Friday, 02 August 2013. But prices still marked the first weekly loss in four weeks.

Gold prices clawed back from intraday lows under $1,300 an ounce after July payrolls growth came in short of expectations. Gold for December delivery settled at $1,310.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 70 cents, or less than 0.1%, for the session. After initially moving sharply higher after the jobs data, it seesawed between small losses and gains, then closed slightly lower as U.S. equities traded off session lows, drawing some attention away from gold. For the week, gold futures lost 0.9%, their first loss in four weeks.

Silver closed higher, putting an end to three sessions of weakness. The September contract closed up 29 cents, or 1.5%, to $19.91 an ounce 0.7% higher for the week.

Latest data at Wall Street showed that nonfarm payrolls added 162,000 jobs after adding a downwardly revised 188,000 (from 195,000) in June. The consensus expected 175,000 new payrolls. The report proved to be a disappointment as not only did payroll growth come in below expectations, but the average workweek dropped to 34.4 hours from 34.5 and average hourly earnings declined 0.1%. Altogether, aggregate wages fell 0.3%, which will put substantial downside pressure on retail sales growth.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.4% from June's rate of 7.6%. The consensus expected the unemployment rate to fall to 7.5%. However, the labor participation rate fell to 63.4% from June's 63.5%, causing about half of the decline in the unemployment rate.

Among Friday's remaining data, June personal income increased 0.3% while the consensus expected income levels to increase 0.5%. Separately, spending increased 0.5% in June against the consensus expectation of a 0.4% increase.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News