Comex gold futures in New York closed 1% lower on Friday night, our time, after suffering their biggest one-day loss in more than a week.
The cause – the solid US jobs report for February and an easing in the tensions in Ukraine for the time being.
The US economy added an estimated 170,000 jobs in February, topping the 140,000 estimate expected by the market.
Thousands more jobs were also found for January and February, boosting the totals for both months to more respectable levels.
The unemployment rate rose to 6.7% from 6.6%, edging up because more people entered the labor force in search of jobs but not all of them found one.
Gold for April delivery fell $US13.60, or 1%, to settle at $US1,338.20 an ounce on Comex.
For the week, prices rose by around 1.3%.
Gold ended at $US1.340 in after hours trading on Saturday morning.
Comex May silver sank nearly 65c, or 3%, to end at $US20.93 an ounce following a 1.4% climb on Thursday. The metal lost around 1.5% for the week.
Comex copper also fell on Friday and over the week. Copper for May delivery shed nearly 14c, or 4.2%, to end at $US3.08 a pound, down 3.3% from the week-ago close.
Copper prices will fall further today and tonight on the news of weak trade figures from China and a fall in imports from January’s highs, but they were up on the weak figures for February, 2013.
In the oil market, US futures closed higher on Friday after data, but ended nearly flat for the week.
Nymex crude for April delivery rose $US1.02, or 1%, to settle at $US102.58 a barrel in New York. That was down a cent over the week.
The price ended a touch higher – $US102.69 in after hours trading.
On the ICE Futures exchange, the April Brent crude contract rose 90c, or 0.8%, to $US109 a barrel. That was a loss of 0.1% for the week.
