Gold Prices Settle Higher; Silver Prices also Edge Higher
Gold prices settled higher on Friday even as investors digested better than expected nonfarm payrolls data for the month of November. Silver prices also gained on Friday.
A report released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 146,000 jobs in November, well above economists’ forecast of 93,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 7.7%.
Gold prices initially fell as investors digested better than expected nonfarm payrolls data, however, prices recovered after bullion investors focused on downward revisions in job figures in September and October. Also, disappointing consumer sentiment data for December lifted gold prices.
The November jobs report has not changed bullion investors’ view that the Federal Reserve will continue with its third round of quantitative easing for a while. Back in September, the Fed had launched a third round of bond buying program. The central bank said that it would buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities every month, until there is a significant recovery in the labor market. Although today’s nonfarm payrolls data beat expectations, there is still some way to go before the labor market fully recovers.
At last check on Friday, spot silver was trading at $1,700.74 an ounce. Gold futures for delivery in February on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $0.80 to settle at $1,702.60 an ounce.
Silver prices rose to $32.97 an ounce on Friday.
In late trading on Friday, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was up 0.30% to $32.03, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was up 0.59% to $52.75, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) was down 0.44% to $42.58.
Platinum and palladium also edged higher. At last check, spot platinum was trading 0.6% higher at $1,602 an ounce, while spot palladium was trading 0.1% higher at $690.90 an ounce.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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