Gold and silver jump

Gold and silver prices jumped in European trade as the dollar fell sharply after US government data showed the economy created fewer jobs that expected in July.
"The weaker jobs number has slashed the chances of an FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) rate rise and that in turn has affected the currency markets and galvanised the precious metals," James Steel, analyst at HSBC Bank, said.
"Gold may be vulnerable to some profit-taking towards the end of the day, but both the markets remain in a short-term bullish uptrend," he said, referring to gold and silver.
Gold hit a high of $654.10 an ounce before moving to $651.00/652.50 by 1500 GMT, against $646.50/648.00 late in New York on Thursday and a two-week high of $655.45 on Wednesday.
Silver climbed more than five percent to a two-month high of $12.56 an ounce and was later quoted at $12.44/12.54, versus $12.04/12.14 in the US market.
The dollar fell to a two-month low against the euro on the employment report, which was the last major piece of economic data before the FOMC meets on August 8 to decide whether to continue its two-year-long series of quarter-percentage point rate rises.
Higher rates tend to boost the dollar and pressure gold. Dealers said gold was expected to trade in a wide range, with the metal getting support from the Middle East conflict. "Given the thin summer market conditions, trade is expected to be volatile with unpredictable sharp moves, but the metal should find underlying support from the continuing conflict," Standard Bank said in a report.
Hezbollah fired more rockets at Israel on Friday and Israeli air strikes destroyed four highway bridges north of Beirut. The physical sector saw sales of scrap gold from parts of Asia, and dealers said jewellery makers were waiting for the price to fall back to around $600, a level last seen in June, before returning to the market.
Premiums for gold bars were zero to the spot London price in Singapore, while in Hong Kong gold bars were offered at a discount of up to 20 US cents an ounce.
In other metals, platinum rose to $1,242/1,247 an ounce from $1,237/1,241 in New York on Thursday, while palladium was at $324/328, up from $322/327 an ounce.
In industry news, Anglo American Plc, the world's third-largest miner, reported a 52.5 percent jump in first-half operating profit and said it was upbeat on the outlook for platinum, gold and other metals prices for the second half of this year.