WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Despite weak jobs data raising hopes that the Federal Reserve will start reducing interest rates during the latter part of the current year, gold prices struggled to move higher on Friday.
A weak dollar helped limit the yellow metal's downside. The dollar index, which dropped to 104.52 after the release of the jobs data, recovered to 105.04 later, but still remained well below the previous close, losing abut 0.25%.
Gold futures contract for May ended down marginally at $2,299.00 an ounce. Gold futures shed abut 1.54% in the week.
Silver futures for May ended lower by $0.138 or about 0.5% at $26.445 an ounce. Silver futures shed nearly 3% in the week.
Copper futures for May moved up $0.0680 or about 1.5% at 4.5525 per pound.
Data from the Labor Department showed non-farm payroll employment climbed by 175,000 jobs in April after surging by an upwardly revised 315,000 jobs in March. Economists had expected employment to jump by 243,000 jobs compared to the spike of 303,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The report also showed the unemployment rate crept up to 3.9% in April from 3.8% in March. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged.
The annual rate of wage growth slowed to 4% in April from 4.1% in March, while economists had expected the pace of wage growth to dip to 4%.
Treasury yields showed a steep drop following the release of the report, helping further offset concerns about the outlook for interest rates.
A report released by the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S. service sector activity unexpectedly contracted in the month of April. The ISM said its services PMI dipped to 49.4 in April from 51.4 in March, with a reading below 50 indicating contraction. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 52.0.
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