Metals Price Watch: Gold Price Slips on Rise in US Jobs

iNVEZZ.com, Friday, July 5: The gold price eased on Friday ahead of the release of US nonfarm jobs data and stood at $1,242.16 an ounce at 0650 GMT, down 0.6 percent.

The figures for June were released by the US Labour Department at 12:30 GMT, showing a bigger-than-expected rise in nonfarm payrolls. The data boosted the dollar, denting the appeal of gold as a haven investment and fuelling speculation that the Federal Reserve would scale back its bullion-friendly bond purchases.

Payrolls rose by 195,000 workers for a second straight month, beating the market consensus for an increase of 165,000. The gold price was to be found at 1,224.23 per ounce as of 14:09 GMT. Gold lost five percent last week, when it fell to $1,180.71 – its lowest price since August 2010.

The silver price also dropped on Friday, falling to $18.93 per ounce as of 14:24 GMT. The metal closed at $19.51 on Thursday.
**Base metals**
The three-month copper price was hurt today by a stronger dollar and worries over economic growth prospects in China and Europe. The metal was at $6,842 per metric ton as of 13:32 GMT on the London Metal Exchange after closing yesterday at $6,950 a ton. European Central Bank’s pledge on Thursday to keep interest rates low has hurt the euro, sending it to a near five-week low against the dollar. The increased strength of the US currency means that non-US traders will have to pay more for dollar-priced metals.

“The weakness today is mostly a combination of negative economic sentiment, stronger dollar and continuing outflows of investors from the commodity space,” Commerzbank metals analyst Eugen Weinberg said, as quoted by Reuters. He added that ECB president Mario Draghi’s press conference on Thursday had shown that prospects for growth in Europe were very slim, while China, the world’s biggest consumer of copper, seemed to be “well oriented to a slowdown”.

!m[Strong Dollar Drags Down Copper Price ](/uploads/story/3727/thumbs/pic1_inline.jpg)
Yet, according to analysts, fundamentals for the physical copper market are not as gloomy as financial markets might suggest.
“Under the surface the market seems to be in a better shape,” Weinberg said.
The tin price fell to $19,735 a metric ton from $20,000 at the close yesterday; the zinc price was down at $1,838.50 a ton from $1,861; lead lost $29 to $2,045 and aluminium slid to $1,787 from $1,812.