Gold futures lead most metals higher on Friday on the back of US-China trade-war tensions and the weak March jobs report.
The weak employment data helped gold log a daily and weekly rise as the US dollar weakened.
Government data showed that the U.S. created 103,000 new jobs in March to mark the smallest gain since for six months.
The unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low of 4.1%. Economists had expected a stronger gain of 170,000 non-farm jobs.
For inflation narks, US average wages rose or 0.3%, to $US26.82 an hour. The 12-month increase in pay picked up slightly to 2.7% from 2.6%, still well below the 2.9% rate first reported for January which triggered the early February sell-off.
The news saw small falls for the day for the US dollar, while the Aussie edged up to end the week around 76.84 US cents, and not much changed from its pre-Easter close around 76.79.
But it was the stepped up trade pressures on China that really helped gold higher.
The Trump White House said in a statement after the market close Thursday that President Donald Trump asked the US Trade Representative to consider an extra $100 billion in Chinese goods to face tariffs and to identify the products that could be targeted.
So Comex June gold closed up $US7.60, or 0.6%, at $US1,336.10 an ounce, for a weekly gain of 0.9%, or $11.90, based settlement the most-active contract last week.
Comex May silver was closed less than 0.1% higher, at $US16.362 an ounce, after starting Friday trading in the red. For the week, silver futures added 0.7%.
And Comex copper for May delivery fell 1.6 cents, or 0.5%, at $US3.0585 a pound. But over the week, the metal saw a weekly rise of about 1.9%. With Chinese markets closed on Thursday and Friday, LME copper trading was thin.
LME three-month copper shed 0.7% to end at $US6,769 a tonne and cutting into Thursday’s 1.4% rise.
LME aluminium rose on Friday after the United States imposed sanctions on allies of President Vladimir Putin and their companies, including Rusal, one of the world’s biggest aluminium producers.
The US sanctions hit 24 Russians and a range of companies in one of Washington’s most aggressive moves to punish Moscow for what it called a range of “malign activity”.
Three month LME aluminium closed up 1.6% at $US2,042 a tonne, recovering from negative territory after the sanctions were announced. China doesn’t import aluminium (though it does import bauxite and alumina).
