Gold prices ended higher Friday and silver bounced off its lowest level in two years, but both precious metals posted losses for the week.
Price action
-
Gold
GCZ22,
-0.47% for December delivery rose $13.30, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,722 .60 per ounce on Comex. Prices for the most-active contract, which settled Thursday at their lowest since July 20, marked a weekly loss of nearly 1.6%, according to Dow Jones Market Data. -
December silver
SIZ22,
+1.07% climbed 21 cents, or 1.2%, to $17.881 an ounce after ending Thursday at the lowest since June 2020. For the week, prices lost 4.6%. -
Platinum futures
PLV22,
+2.81% for October delivery advanced $12.80, or 1.6%, to $818.30 per ounce, down 4.3% for the week, while December palladium PAZ22,+5.40% gained $29.80, of 1.5%, to $2,026.10 per ounce, with a 4.5% weekly loss. -
Copper futures
HGZ22,
+3.54% shed a penny, or 0.2%, to $3.4135 per pound, losing 7.7% for the week.
What analysts are saying
Gold, as well as silver, finished higher in the wake of Friday’s release of the monthly U.S. employment data.
“The U.S. labor market is strong,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, according to the data, which showed that the U.S. added 315,000 new jobs in August, basically matching Wall Street estimates.
The labor participation number has also improved, “a highly encouraging sign for traders,” he said, in a market update.
However, “the overall unemployment rate has gone up,” said Aslam. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in August from 3.5%. “This is a goldilocks scenario for traders who now know that the [Federal Reserve] is unlikely to increase the rate aggressively,” said Aslam. “This factor has pushed the dollar index lower and gold prices moved higher on the back of this.”
The ICE U.S. Dollar index
DXY,
Jeff Wright, chief investment officer at Wolfpack Capital, told 江湖电竞最新版比赛(江湖电竞投注app网站) that the “tick up in unemployment” will give the Federal Open Market Committee “something to think about at the September meeting as the duel mandate of full employment and price stability is still their focus.”
Gold has been under pressure as the U.S. dollar has risen this week and through most of August and the “bias is still to the downside,” he said.
Silver, meanwhile, “has been under pressure not only due to gold falling and the correlation, but also as an industrial metal as demand has weakened in a soft economic forecast outlook,” said Wright, adding that about 60% of produced silver is for industrial uses.
“Next week and into September, I will be very focused on any inflation data and hints as to what is next after the FOMC most likely raises another 75 [basis points] in mid September,” said Wright. “Interest in gold is fairly low right now and I see nothing that will change this in the short run as safe haven demand is almost non existent.”
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