WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures inched higher Friday, extending a prolonged win streak after a lackluster U.S. jobs report.
February gold rose 70 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,322.30 an ounce, the highest since September. Gold was up 1 percent this week, part of a 10-day winning streak.
The Labor Department said employment in the U.S. increased by much less than anticipated in the month of December.
The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 148,000 jobs in December after spiking by an upwardly revised 252,000 jobs in November.
The downbeat jobs news means the Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise interest rates early in 2018.
New orders for U.S. manufactured goods jumped by more than expected in the month of November, by 1.3 percent in November after rising by an upwardly revised 0.4 percent in October.
Economists had expected factory orders to climb by 1.1 percent compared to the 0.1 percent drop originally reported for the previous month.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX