By Claudia Assis and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures meandered between small gains and losses Friday, vying to break a four-day losing streak after a much-awaited U.S. jobs report disappointed.
Gold for June delivery GCM2 +0.13% was recently down 30 cents to $1,633.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices had traded higher earlier, as the jobs report left investors disappointed and more hopeful of additional monetary easing, which would be a positive for gold.
The metal is seen as a safe store of value and inflation hedge.
The Labor Department reporting creation of 115,000 jobs in April and a slight decline in the employment rate, mostly as people stopped looking for work.
June gold fell 1.2% on Thursday, sliding below $1,640 an ounce and vulnerable to a significant correction if it ends lower again on Friday. The metal has settled lower for the past four sessions.
Providing some support for gold, the dollar was slightly weaker. The ICE dollar index DXY +0.22% , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six other currencies, dipped to 79.118 from 79.213 late Thursday.
A softer dollar can encourage investment in dollar-priced commodities including metals, as it makes them more affordable for holders of other currencies.
The broader metals complex also turned mixed, with silver holding to gains.
Copper for July delivery HGN2 -0.72% retreated 3 cents, or 0.8%, to $3.71 per pound.
July silver SIN2 +0.67% put on 12 cents, or 0.4%, to $30.13 an ounce.
July platinum PLN2 -0.59% declined $9.50, or 0.7%, to $1,523.20 an ounce, while palladium for June delivery PAM2 -1.31% was off $8.85, or 1.3%, to $652.60 an ounce.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
