Gold futures fell on Friday, despite the news of a 20 million-plus surge in US unemployment in April.
But that didn’t stop gold prices ending the week slightly higher.
The COVID-19 pandemic destroyed 20.5 million US jobs in April, driving the unemployment rate to a post-Word War II high of 14.7% as the US and the rest of the world faced its biggest economic crisis in almost a century,
While the loss of jobs was less than the 22.1 million loss forecast of economists surveyed by MarketWatch, it still understated the real situation due to errors in classifying millions of people without a job but on some type of benefits.
On Comex, June gold fell by $US11.90, or 0.7%, to settle at $US1,713.90 an ounce, after spending much of the session between losses and gains.
Meanwhile, Comex July silver rose 18.8 cents, or 1.2% to settle at $US15.778 an ounce.
Comex July copper rose 1.1% to $US2.406 a pound, with prices up over 4% for the week, helped by better thane expected copper imports data from China.
For the week, gold rose just on 0.8%, while silver futures jump nearly 6% advance over the period.
