Gold futures in New York tumbled from a 25-year high on early Friday, pressured by speculator and trade selling as the dollar climbed after a closely watched US jobs report and as oil prices eased.
Market sources said that investors were pocketing part of the heady gains seen this week across the precious metals group when prices surged to multi-decade highs.
Silver moved lower, after stretching up to a new 22-year peak above $12 an ounce, on further speculative buying. Platinum and palladium also pulled back.
"The gold market reaching that $600 level I think might be encouraging a little profit taking," said James Quinn, commodities commentator for AG Edwards & Sons in New York. "And, I think that we're coming off on the jobs report and it's the end of the week and you have a lower oil price." Gold for June delivery fell $9.60 to $590.10 an ounce by 10:41 am EDT on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division.
Futures spiked above $600 an ounce on Thursday for the first time since January 1981, and then punched as high as $603.10 early Friday. The morning's low was $589.50.
By midmorning, gold was posting its biggest one-day loss in a month.
Before the sell-off on Friday, investors had been turning to the booming commodities markets for investment alternatives to lagging equity, bond and foreign exchange markets. Many analysts said this trend probably would pick up again.
Spot gold was down at $587.90/588.80 an ounce, below Thursday's late New York quote at $594.80/5.70. London's morning fix on Friday hit $597. COMEX May silver fell 4.5 cents to $12.00 an ounce, dealing between $12.1950 - its highest since September 1983 - and a low of $11.94.
Silver has climbed on hopes for a launch of the first exchange-traded fund, which would trade like listed shares and has the potential to attract 4,000 tonnes of bullion. The market was awaiting the ETF's final approval from US regulators.
Spot silver was quoted at $12.01/12.04 an ounce, versus $12.04/07 previously. It fixed at $12.1650.
NYMEX July platinum sank $16.30 to $1,080.50 an ounce, well below last week's all-time high of $1,105.40.
Spot platinum retreated to $1,068/1,073. June palladium dropped $6.05 to $352 an ounce. Thursday's peak at $360.70 marked an almost four-year high for futures. Spot palladium fell to $347/351.