Daily Gold Update

Source:Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

AustinRising for a third session, gold added 0.4% to close at a one-week high above $1,783, after federal jobs data revealed ongoing struggles in the labor market, undercutting the dollar and lifting alternative stores of value. The metal finished the week with a gain of 0.3%.

The government's nonfarm payrolls report, released today, showed an impressive 850,000 jobs were added in June, handily beating forecasts of 706,000. It was the biggest monthly increase since last September, led by service-oriented companies responding to the lifting of most Covid restrictions.

However, total was boosted by nearly 200,000 jobs related to pandemic-related effects on education that should be discounted, economists say. With those positions factored out, the total was less encouraging and fell short of forecasts. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose from 5.8% to 5.9%.

Wall Street cheered the equivocal data, seeing it as strong enough to support growth but weak enough to prevent premature rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. The Nasdaq jumped 0.8% while the Dow and S&P 500 picked up 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.

The dollar fell 0.4% after the jobs report as traders speculated that the jobs report provides no reason for the Fed to accelerate the tightening of monetary policy. A weaker dollar supports gold and other commodities by making them less expensive n other currencies, lifting demand overseas.

The other precious metals were higher for the day and mixed for the week. Silver added 1.5% today and 1.6% this week. Platinum rose 0.6% for a weekly loss 1.4%. Palladium climbed 0.9% today and 5.9% this week.

At the Comex close: August gold added $6.50, to $1,783.30; September silver jumped 40 cents to $26.50; October platinum picked up $6.80 to $1,087.70; and September palladium climbed $23.60 to $2,792.50 an ounce.