WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold steadied after hitting 9-month lows Friday, as traders bet the recent sell-off was overdone.
Feb. gold settled at $1,177.80/oz, up $8.40, or 0.7%. Gold was down 0.1% for the week.
There was little reaction to a somewhat upbeat jobs report that may cement expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike in December.
U.S. unemployment dropped to 4.6%, the lowest since 2007.
Non-farm payroll employment climbed by 178,000 jobs in November following a downwardly revised increase of 142,000 jobs in October.
However, wages also declined unexpectedly.
'That weak wage figure will probably raise a few eyebrows among some of the more dovish Fed voters,' said James Smith, Developed Markets Economist at ING. 'But it would have had to have been a really disastrous jobs report to have derailed the FOMC's plans to hike in December.'
He added, 'In fact, assuming that the latest wage growth figure was a blip, we still think that the labor market is strong enough to support two hikes from the FOMC next year.'
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX