Daily Gold Update

Source: Reuters

New York— U.S. gold futures ended easier but above fresh five-week lows on Friday, pressured by pre-weekend speculative selling as the market looked to currencies for direction, traders and analysts said.

August gold on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange ended down 40 cents at $423.80 an ounce, after trading from $425.80 to $422.30, which was its lowest price since June 2.

Gold gyrated after a weaker-than-expected U.S. June payrolls report in the morning, with fund buying and a softer dollar quickly bolstering prices.

But, the greenback later rebounded a bit and gold fell prey to more liquidation after previously shedding gains linked to London's fatal bomb blasts on Thursday.

"Gold was fairly choppy as crude oil turned lower and the dollar got stronger and a little more residual selling came in," said Refco metals analyst Tom Boustead.

"There is a little of everything back and forth — you can see a lot of position changing going on here," said a COMEX floor trader. "But I think we got rid of a lot more shorts than we thought we had. There had been a fairly big short contingent in here before the bombings yesterday."

The blasts — which ministers said bore the hallmarks of the Islamic militant al Qaeda network — were London's deadliest in peacetime and disrupted a summit of the G8 industrialized countries in Gleneagles, Scotland.

London police said Friday more than 50 people were killed and 700 wounded in the blasts.

The euro was quoted at $1.1937 late in New York.

Spot gold edged to $422.70/3.40 an ounce, down from Thursday's late New York quote at $423.75/4.50. Friday's afternoon fix was at $424.40.

Estimated COMEX gold volume was a brisk 60,000 lots, versus Thursday's also busy 62,817 contracts. Open interest rose 2,686 lots to 275,664 lots as of July 7.

U.S. employers added 146,000 jobs in June, a government report said, below Wall Street forecasts for about 188,500 jobs. The unemployment rate was 5.0 percent, versus forecasts for 5.1 percent.

September silver ended 4.5 cents higher at $7.03 an ounce, trading from $6.94 to $7.07. Spot silver was worth $6.98/7.01, up from $6.96/98. The fix was at $6.9425.

October platinum settled unchanged at $862.20 an ounce. Spot platinum last was worth $862/867.

September palladium rose $1.90 to settle at $185.60 an ounce. Spot stayed at $179/183.