Gold ends the week above $656 per ounce despite US jobs data

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold prices rose a couple of Dollars back above $650 in Asia on Friday before it fell back off in London and dropped to as low as $644.70 in early New York trade.

But the gold market then climbed higher for the rest of the day and ended near its high of the session with a gain of 0.66%.  Silver dropped to $12.31 in early New York trade, but it then rose over 3% off its low to about $12.75 before it fell back off slightly in the last half hour of trade and ended with a gain of 1.61%

Euro gold rose near €480, platinum gained $6 to $1,308, palladium gained $1 to $366, and copper remained at about $3.62.

Gold and silver equities rose over 2.5% by late morning and remained near their highs into the close.
 
The BLS net birth/death adjustment added 156,000 jobs to June’s payrolls.  Upward revisions added 75,000 jobs to April’s and May’s readings. Next week’s economic highlights include Consumer Credit on Monday, Wholesale Inventories on Tuesday, Initial Jobless Claims, the Trade Balance, and the Treasury Budget on Thursday, and Export and Import Prices, Retail Sales, Business Inventories, and Michigan Sentiment on Friday.

Oil again rose on Friday on refinery concerns and worries over violence in Nigeria. The US Dollar index fell near a two-year low despite higher interest rates as today’s jobs data was not seen as strong enough to influence the fed to raise interest rates while other world governments continue to raise their rates.

Treasury bonds fell on better than expected jobs data thanks to another hefty BLS upward adjustment as well as upward revisions to past data.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell at the open on worries over higher interest rates, but they soon rose and traded slightly higher for the rest of the day as higher oil prices brought energy stocks higher and more buyout rumors lifted the general market.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Genzyme, Dow Jones and News Corp, Advanced Medical and Bausch & Lomb, Rio Tinto and Alcoa/Alcan, CME and CBOT, UBS, Dana and Centerbridge, and UAW and Ford.