Precious metals pare early losses and end mildly higher

Gold for February delivery added $3.70, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,705.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading between $1,684.10 and $1,706.90. Gold

ended the week with a loss of 0.4%.

Like gold, silver lost 0.4% for the week. Silver for March delivery tacked on 2 cents, or 0.1%, to $33.13 an ounce on Friday.

As per latest employment data from the Labor Department, nonfarm payrolls came in at 146K versus the 90K expected. The prior reading was revised down to 138K from 171K. Nonfarm private payrolls added 147K against the 120K consensus. The unemployment rate was reported at 7.7%, against an expected figure of 8.0%.

The report also showed that hourly earnings rose by 0.2% while the expectations called for an uptick of 0.1%. Lastly, average workweek was reported at 34.4, which was in-line with the consensus.

Separately, the preliminary University of Michigan Survey for December came in at 74.5, which is lower than the 82.7 that was posted in the prior month, and worse than the reading of 82.4 that had been expected by the consensus.

According to the Federal Reserve, consumer credit increased by $14.2 billion in October. This follows prior month's reading of a $11.4 billion increase, and is higher than the $9.9 billion that had been broadly expected.

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

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