Gold Falls vs. Dollar, Nears Euro Record, Ahead of US Jobs Data

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold dropped as much as $10.50 to $1132.40 in Asia on Thursday before it climbed back to almost unchanged in London.

Subsequently falling off to a new session low of $1126.10 by 10:45 EST in New York, the Gold Price then rallied back in the last few hours of trade to end with a loss of 0.9%.

The Gold Price in Euros rose back near its record high of €835 after the European Central Bank decided to leave rates unchanged at 1% and indicated that they will remain at that record low level for possibly longer than the Fed's campaign to keep US rates at their own record low.

Silver fell to $17.03 in Asia before it rose to see an eleven cent gain at $17.36 in London, but it then fell back off for most of the rest of trade and ended with a loss of 0.6%.

Platinum gained $1.50 to $1577.50, and copper fell nearly 6 cents to about $3.36.

Gold Mining and silver equities fell over 2% by midmorning and remained at about that level for the rest of the day.

Oil fell back near $80 a barrel as the US Dollar index rose, and Treasuries rose along with the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P on mixed economic data.

Initial US Jobless Claims for last week came in on forecast, down slightly from mid-Feb. US Productivity rates jumped in the fourth quarter, new data showed, while Unit Labor Costs sank 5.9%.

But while Factory Orders rose 1.7% in Jan., Pending Home Sales sank 7.6% from Dec.

Friday at 08:30 EST brings February's US jobs data. Nonfarm Payrolls are expected down 65,000, with the Unemployment Rate expected at 9.8%.

Hourly Earnings are expected up 0.2%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.7 hours.

Then at 15:00 comes Consumer Credit for January, expected down by $4.5 billion.

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