The poor February jobs report from the US and weakish Chinese trade data helped drag gold a little higher on Friday and over the week.
But the prices of other metals were mostly mixed to weaker.
Comex gold futures rose by 1% on Friday for a slight gain for the week, boosted by losses in global stock markets on the heels of weak Chinese trade figures and US jobs data.
April gold added $US13.20, or 1%, to settle at $US1,299.30 an ounce after briefly trading as high as $US1,301.30.
That was after the lowest settlement price on Tuesday since late January. Prices for the most-active contract were up 10 cents from the week-ago finish, according to the FactSet financial data group.
Comex May silver rose 30.9 cents, or 2.1%, to $US15.349 an ounce, giving it a 0.6% weekly gain.
Comex May copper fell 0.6% at $US2.894 a pound, ending 1.3% lower on the week. Worries about an economic slowdown in China weighed on demand for the metal, even though the Chinese import data for January and February was solid.
April platinum added less than 0.1% to $US817.60 an ounce, down 5.3% for the week, while June palladium lost 1.6% to $US1,459 an ounce, down 3.1% for the week.
Iron ore prices closed roughly steady over the week, retreating from a move to the verge of $90 US a tonne.
The Metal Bulletin’s 62% Fe Index ended at $US85.77 a tonne on Friday, down $US1.84 per tonne, or 2% on the day.
Prices of other ore types also fell.
Friday’s close was 15 US cents a tonne under the close the previous Friday of $US87.92 a tonne.
Wall Street fell sharply then clawed back most of the losses to end Friday down marginally.
The February employment report was the weakest in 17 months, with only 20,000 new positions created.
January’s big 304,000 new jobs figure was revised up marginally to 311,000. An average of 186,000 new jobs were created in December, January, and February.
The weak jobs report means no rate rise from the US Federal Reserve until at least September, according to US analysts. Another weak report in the meantime will raise the chances of a rate cut by the end of this year.
Details within the report, including wages, were more upbeat with wages growing by an annual 3.4% in February, the fastest rate for nine years. The jobless rate fell to 3.8%.
The euro fell Thursday after the European Central Bank said it was starting a new round of targeted lending and indicated its key interest rates wouldn’t rise at least until late 2019. Weakness in the currency led to a stronger US dollar, but the dollar index was lower on Friday, adding to the boost for gold and oil, but not other commodities.
The Aussie dollar ended the week around 70.45, down a third of a cent from the previous Friday and resisting falling under the 70 cent level.
