Gold ended higher on Friday off the back of the weak employment report for March which showed the damage from COVID-19 is ripping the heart out of the US jobs market and will do even worse damage in the coming months.
Comex June gold rose $US8, or 0.5%, to settle at $US1,645.70 an ounce In New York.
While it rose 2.9% on Thursday, the most-active contract registered a loss of 0.5% for the week, according to FactSet data.
The job claims data for the past three weeks have already shown that COVID-19 has ended America’s greatest ever jobs boom that started in September 2010.
But the loss of 710,000 jobs was worst than forecast and now there is even more unemployed to come.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from a 50-year low of 3.5% in February. But the huge increase in weekly new jobless claims reported Thursday, however, suggests the rate has actually surged to around 10%.
Among other metals, May silver lost 16 cents, or 1.1%, to $US14.494 an ounce. For the week, silver eased by 0.3%.
Comex May copper shed 1.2% to $US2.1925 a pound but prices were still up 0.9% for the week.
