Prices perk up as a better-than-expected US jobs report isn't enough to offset investors' growing concerns about a global slowdown.
Gold prices were rising Friday as investos sought safe assets after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report failed to spark a sustained rally in stocks.
Gold (-GC) for December delivery was up $5.70 to $1,664.70 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold has traded as high as $1,673 and as low as $1,644.20, while the spot gold price was adding $16.60, according to Kitco's gold index.
Silver (-SI) prices were down 44 cents at $38.99 an ounce. The U.S. dollar index was up 0.3% at $75.08 while the euro was adding 0.3% against the dollar.
Gold got caught in the flood of selling Thursday as investors fled all assets, but the metal was rebounding Friday as investors searched for some safe haven, as a relatively upbeat U.S. jobs report wasn’t enough to offset fears of a global economic downturn.
The Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 117,000 jobs in July, exceeding the growth of 84,000 that economists had been expecting, according to Briefing.com. The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 9.1% from 9.2% in June; economists had been anticipating an increase to 9.3%.
With the word recession now being thrown around as a possibility, investors are bringing a magnifying glass to the jobs number to measure the reality of a recession. Plummeting stocks alone aren't enough to signal a recession, but lower stocks, lower growth, lower manufacturing activity and high unemployment "add to existing concerns," according to a report from Sam Stovall, Standard & Poor's chief investment strategist.
