US gold settled barely lower on Friday, after strengthening for most of the day and again after hours, when participants bought the yellow metal as a safe-haven response to gloomy jobs data and in reaction to the dollar, which swung lower, then back to even, traders said.
Silver tumbled to a 12-1/2-month low when the weak labour market reading caused investors to sell with other industrial metals, triggering stop-loss sell orders on the way down, traders said.
GOLD December gold closed with small 40-cent losses at $802.80 an ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. December extended gains to $824.20, its highest level since Tuesday after the US payrolls report. Gold traded lower before the jobs data, setting a session low at $794.80 an ounce.
COMEX estimated final gold volume at 186,386 lots. The options tally came to 12,044 lots. A drop in the dollar and weaker-than-expected jobs data pushed gold into positive territory, but late in the session it pulled off the highs when the dollar moved back up - traders.
The US dollar fell against the euro for the first time in seven sessions after the US Labour Department showed a more dramatic decline in August jobs creation than anticipated and a jump in the unemployment rate. Dollar-denominated gold strengthened as some investors took advantage of the currency differential in overseas markets from a falling dollar.
Other participants bought gold when the weaker economic prospects displayed in the US Labour report lead to some safe-haven buying - traders. The Labour Department said 84,000 jobs were lost in August, more than the 75,000 forecast by economists and compared with the 60,000 lost payrolls in July.
The report also showed a jump in the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, the highest level in nearly five years. Spot gold slipped off earlier highs, but was still up somewhat at $801.10/813.10 an ounce from $796.15/797.75 at Thursday's close. London's afternoon gold fix was set at $808.50 an ounce.
SILVER: December closed 61.50 cents lower at $12.3250 an ounce. The contract tumbled as low as $12.19, a 12-1/2 month low, from a $12.8550 an ounce high. COMEX estimated final volume at 37,806 lots. Silver was sold as an industrial metal when economic growth was called into question after the dismal August reading on the Labour market-traders.
Initial declines lead to a slide beneath a key technical level at $12.50. Support breach triggered automatic sell orders and a drop to a 12-1/2-month low-traders. Spot silver slid to $12.19/12.27 an ounce from Thursday's late quote at $12.74/12.80 an ounce. The silver fix was set lower at $12.72 an ounce.
PLATINUM: October finished with $34.40 losses at $1,367.80 an ounce. Demand for metal, used for autocatalysts, was in questions after this week's sharp drop in US car sales. Spot platinum sank to $1,353.00/1373.00 an ounce, from the late Thursday quote at $1,391.50/1,411.50 an ounce.
PALLADIUM: December palladium lost $16.90 to end at $272.90 an ounce, down with platinum. Spot palladium dropped to $267.00/275.00 from $281.50/289.50 per ounce late on Thursday.