Gold News & Info

Source:Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold rebounded 1.2% to close near $1,784 after weak jobs data and the rising omicron threat sapped risk appetite, undermining equities and stoking demand for safe-haven assets. The metal ended the week down 0.1%.

The US economy added a meager 210,000 new jobs in November, fewer than half of most forecasts, according to the government's nonfarm payrolls report. It was the smallest monthly increase of 2021.

While the headline total was abysmal, other aspects of the report were positive. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%, a pandemic low, and the so-called participation rate edged up slightly to a pandemic high of 61.8%.

Other economic data was also strong. The ISM services PMI climbed at the fastest pace of record despite severe labor shortages. And the Commerce Department reported orders for manufactured goods rose 1% in October.

Meanwhile, multiple cases of the omicron covid variant were reported in New York, raising new uncertainty about the course of the pandemic and recovery.

Wall Street retreated despite the silver linings in the economic data, with the Nasdaq dumping 2% while the S&P 500 and Dow slid 0.8% and 0.1%, respectively.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields also pulled back sharply, dropping under 1.37% as investors shed risk for safe havens. Lower yields support gold by decreasing the opportunity cost for holding it instead of bonds. The dollar was little changed.

The other precious metals were mixed for the day and week. Silver added 0.7% today but fell 2.7% this week. Platinum fell dropped 0.7% for a weekly loss of 2.9%. Palladium rose 2.3% for a weekly rise of 1.3%.

At the Comex close: February gold gained $21.20, to $1,783.90; March silver climbed 17 cents to $22.48; January platinum slid $6.90 to $926.20; March palladium picked up $41.20 to $1,812.60 an ounce.