Daily Gold Update

Source:Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold gained 0.6% to close at $1,790 as concerns over surging US coronavirus cases offset strong jobs data and rising stocks to boost safe-haven demand. The metal ended the holiday-shortened week 0.5% higher for its fourth consecutive weekly win.

US nonfarm payrolls added a record 4.8 million jobs in June, pushing the official unemployment rate down to 11.1%, as states reopened for commerce and furloughed employees returned to work. By far the biggest gains were in hospitality, where nearly 1.5 million jobs were restored in bars and restaurants.

The good news came with two big caveats. While 7.5 million Americans have returned to work in the past two months, more than twice that many remain unemployed after 22 million lost their jobs to the pandemic. And the NFP survey was taken mid-month before record-setting waves of new COVID cases forced some states to reverse their re-opening, especially within the hospitality sector.

Casting a further shadow on the labor market, many workers continue to be laid off each week. More than 1.4 million applied for first-time unemployment benefits through states last week while another 840,000 filed through special federal programs.

Nonetheless, Wall Street cheered the latest payrolls report, sending all three major indexes higher by around 1.2% as traders ignored the coronavirus to bet on hopes for a V-shaped recovery.

Meanwhile, new cases of COVID-19 surpassed 52,000 per day in the US, the most since the pandemic started, as infections ramp up in populous states like California, Texas, Arizona, and Florida.

The dollar and Treasury prices both ticked higher on safe-haven inflows. A rising dollar tends to cap gold's gains by making it more expensive in other currencies.

The other precious metals were mixed for the day but higher for the week. Silver added 0.6% today for a weekly rise of 1.6%. Platinum slipped 0.3% but rose 1.5% this week. Palladium dipped 0.2% for a weekly climb of 1.8%.

At the Comex close: August gold gained $10.10 to $1,790; September silver added a dime, to $18.32; October platinum gave up $2.10 to $831.60; and September palladium slipped $3.10 to $1,927.60 an ounce.