WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices drifted lower on Friday, extending losses to a third straight day as the dollar stayed positive almost right through the session on encouraging jobs data.
The dollar index, which rose to 93.24 a little before noon, later dropped to 92.79, netting a marginal gain.
Gold futures for December ended down $3.50 at $1,934.30 an ounce. Gold futures shed about 2.1% in the week.
Silver futures for December finished lower by $0.163 at $26.712 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $3.0620 per pound, gaining $0.0870 for the session.
Data from the Labor Department showed a substantial increase in U.S. employment in the month of August, although the pace of job growth continued to slow from the record spike seen in June.
The data said non-farm payroll employment surged up by 1.371 million jobs in August after spiking by a downwardly revised 1.734 million jobs in July and soaring by 4.781 million jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to jump by about 1.400 million jobs compared to the addition of 1.763 million jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The strong job growth in August was partly due to the hiring of 238,000 temporary 2020 Census workers, which contributed to a significant increase in government employment.
The unemployment rate fell to 8.4% in August from 10.2% in July. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to edge down to 9.8%.
The unemployment rate continued to decline from the post-World War II record high of 13.5% in April but remains well above the 50-year low of 3.5% seen late last year.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX