Gold Rises to Nine-Session High After Jobs Data; Payrolls Rise by 113,000 in January, Missing Forecasts
NEW YORK--Gold prices rose on Friday as a mixed U.S. employment report forced investors to recalibrate their assumptions about the Federal Reserve's future monetary policy.</br></br>Gold for April delivery, the most active contract, gained $5.70, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,262.90 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was the highest settlement price since Jan. 27, when futures closed at $1,263.40 an ounce.</br></br>The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 113,000 new jobs in January, well below forecasts of a 189,000 increase. The disappointing data fanned hopes that the Federal Reserve would keep its stimulus program in place for longer than previously thought, sending gold to the day's high of $1,272 an ounce.</br></br>However, gold futures were unable to hold those intraday highs. Some market participants pointed to bright spots in the jobs report such as the upward revisions to November's employment data as well as a month-on-month improvement from December.</br></br>"It is a bad report, but I think you'll need to get another one or two pretty bad ones before the Fed makes a move," said Bob Haberkorn, a senior commodities broker with RJO Futures in Chicago.