Bullions shine on last trading day of the week

Bullion metals ended higher at Comex on Friday, 05 April 2013. Gold futures closed more than $20 an ounce higher on Friday, paring their loss for the week, as a disappointing U.S. jobs report pressured the dollar and contributed to a slide in the stock market.

Gold for June delivery rose $23.50, or 1.5%, to settle at $1,575.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Tracking the most-active contracts, gold prices were still down 1.2% from the final trading day of last week.

Silver for May delivery rose 45 cents, or 1.7%, to $27.22 an ounce on Friday. Silver recouped a portion of its recent losses, but still lost 3.9% for the week.

Latest job data showed that the United States created the fewest number of jobs in March in nine months, adding to a string of reports suggesting companies have cut back on new hires and that the economy is slowing again. As per the report, the U.S. added a seasonally adjusted 88,000 jobs, the smallest increase since last June and nearly half-a-million people stopped looking for work last month. The March jobs report fell well below Wall Street expectations. Market had forecast a 190,000 increase in jobs. U.S. stocks slumped after the report.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.6% from 7.7% to mark the lowest level since December 2007, but the decline stemmed from more Americans dropping out of the labor force.

The disappointing March jobs report has revived concerns that the economy could cool off again in midyear like it did in both 2012 and 2011. In both years, hiring started out strong but later petered out. Most economists have been predicting the economy would slow in the second quarter after a strong start to the new year. Growth in the second quarter is forecast to decelerate to 2.2% from an estimated 3% in the first three months of 2013.

The dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 0.2% on Friday.

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