COMEX gold surged past the $400 an ounce mark for the first time in more than two weeks early Friday, with silver posting its own 3-1/2 month high, after an anaemic increase in July US payrolls fanned worries about the US economic recovery and weakened the dollar.
"I don't think gold lifted silver. I think there was a knee-jerk reaction to number," said a metals broker. "They all went up because the euro went up." He added, "This was all surprisingly bad news."
December gold rose to $404.00 an ounce to mark its highest since July 21 in the aftermath of the Labour Department report that non-farm payrolls rose just 32,000 last month. That was far below the 228,000 increase forecast by economists, who had been expecting that the economy was coming out of a soft patch in the first quarter.
At 10:01 am EDT (1401 GMT), December gold was up $7.20 or 1.8 percent at $402.00 which was almost $8 above the overnight low of $394.10.
Spot gold rose to $400.75 on the data and was last quoted at $399.20/9.70, up from $392.60/3.10 late Thursday in New York. London's afternoon fix was $399.00.
COMEX September silver was up 5.5 cents at $6.805 an ounce, rising to $6.90 to mark its highest price since April 20, off a low of $6.68. Spot silver was at $6.76/79, up from the close at $6.73/76. The fix was $6.68.
NYMEX October platinum went up $1.70 to stand at $829.00 an ounce. Spot platinum fetched $826.00/831.00.
September palladium was $1.50 firmer at $214.90 an ounce. Spot palladium was at $210.00/215.00.
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