A lot of the attention on Friday was concentrated on the release of the payroll data and the news was hardly good as the data disappointed in many respects. The US economy is the world’s largest and, as such, is seen as a key indicator of global performance; when poor results are posted by the US government the world’s markets tend to follow suit shortly afterwards. Friday’s announcement that job growth was minimal and did not meet expectations caused crude oil futures for September to fall markedly down $1.31 a barrel to $80.70. Over 100,000 workers were laid off in the public sector and while analysts expected non-farm job growth of around 100,000 it only produced around 70,000 which was down on June’s results of 83,000. Unemployment claims had also risen last month and while crude oil peaked above $80 a barrel at the beginning of last week for the first time in some time the price is slipping again. However, where the poor employment figures had a detrimental effect on crude oil prices, it had the reverse effect on the perceived safety offered by gold. Futures rose $6 to $1,205.30 in New York. As investors have also begun to turn their attention to silver, prices rose 15.1 cents to $18.472 an ounce. Copper didn’t fare so well dropping 0.3% and settling at $3.34 a pound.

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