Gold, Silver & Platinum Trading In The Green

Gold added $3.20 this morning trading at 1270.50 as traders bought the cheap commodity while the US dollar climbed towards a recent high. Silver added 127 points but still remains in the low 19.00 range while platinum added $1.90 to reach 1412.65. Gold prices rose slightly on Friday, with the Comex gold futures quote up by 0.1 per cent, to 1,267.30 per ounce. Over the week gold fell by $20.10 an ounce.

Precious metal prices moved higher Friday after data showed the US economy created fewer jobs than expected in August, easing fears that the Federal Reserve may raise rates sooner than expected. US job growth slowed to its lowest level of the year in August, a stumble for labour markets that had delivered a string of steady gains over the prior six months despite an uneven economic recovery.

Nonfarm employment advanced a seasonally adjusted 142,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate, obtained via a separate survey of households, ticked down to a seasonally adjusted 6.1 per cent in August from 6.2 per cent in July. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected payrolls to rise by 225,000 jobs and the jobless rate to fall to 6.1 per cent.

Prices for the precious metal have been under pressure in recent weeks, as steadily improving US data sparked fears the Fed would raise rates before the middle of next year, when most investors currently expect the central bank to tighten monetary policy. Gold, which yields nothing and costs money to hold, is seen as a less attractive investment during times of rising interest rates.

Base metal prices were generally lower by up to 1.1 per cent on Friday, with lead down the most. But nickel bucked the trend, up by 0.9 per cent with copper up 0.6 per cent. Over the week metal prices were mixed, with nickel up 4.1 per cent, but lead fell by 2.2 per cent. Iron ore fell by 70 cents, or 0.8 per cent, on Friday to 83.60 a ton. Over the week iron ore fell by $4.30 a ton.

Copper this morning is flat at 3.171 as traders evaluate Chinese trade numbers released earlier in the day. With economic growth slowing in China, the world’s largest copper consumer, investors have been looking for stronger US demand to pick up some of the slack. Copper is used in the manufacture of everything from smartphones to refrigerators, making it sensitive to economic data.  This morning’s trade balance showed that exports from the world’s No. 2 economy rose 9.4 percent in August from a year earlier but imports dropped 2.4 percent, which indicates slack domestic demand. Some economists say additional stimulus is needed to prevent China’s growth rate from waning after mini-stimulus measure helped it tick up to 7.5 percent in the second quarter. Copper rose to its highest level in more than a week on Friday, as investors bet that an apparent speed bump in the US recovery will be outweighed by an expected boost in demand from Europe.