Gold Slips, Silver Gains as US Dollar Rallies Ahead of Jobs Data

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold fell as much as $8.10 to $1128.20 in early London trade on Thursaday before it chopped back higher in New York.

The Gold Price still ended with a loss of 0.4% on the day vs. Dollars. The Euro Gold Price rose above €791 an ounce as the single currency fell.

Silver dropped as low as $18.02 before it also climbed back higher in New York and ended near its late morning high of $18.33 with a gain of 0.8%.

Platinum gained $2 to $1550, and copper fell over 6 cents to about $3.41.

Gold Mining and silver equities fell nearly 2% in the first hour of trade before they rebounded slightly, but they still ended with almost 1% losses.

Oil fell slightly on demand worries after China's central bank surprised markets by raising its interest rate in a three-month bill auction.

The US Dollar index rose after comments from the Japanese finance minister caused the Yen to drop markedly.

Treasuries fell while the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P remained near unchanged as traders positioned themselves ahead of tomorrow's jobs data.
Initial US Jobless Claims for last week were below expectations.

Friday at 08:30 EST brings December's US jobs data. Non-Farm Payrolls are expected down 35,000, with the Unemployment Rate expected at 10.0%.

Hourly Earnings are expected up 0.2%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.2 hours.

At 10:00 comes the Wholesale Inventories report for November, expected  down 0.3%, and at 15:00 is Consumer Credit for November, expected to show a $5.0 billion contraction.

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