WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled higher on Friday, gaining for the fourth consecutive session despite a stronger dollar, as safe haven buying continued due to prevailing concerns over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's proposed policies and economic uncertainties.
The dollar climbed higher after data from the Labor Department showing stronger than expected growth in non-farm payroll employment raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will go slow on interest rate cuts.
The dollar index advanced to 109.97 a fresh 2-year high, and despite dropping to 109.72, remained well above the flat line, gaining nearly 0.5%.
Gold futures for January ended higher by $24.70 or about 0.92% at $2,708.50 an ounce. Gold futures gained nearly 2.5% in the week.
Silver futures for January settled at $31.091 an ounce, gaining $0.300 or nearly 1%. Silver futures gained about 4.3% in the week.
Copper futures for January climbed to $4.3140 per pound, gaining $0.0345 or 0.81%.
Data from the Labor Department showed U.S. non-farm payroll employment surged by 256,000 in December, after jumping by a downwardly revised 212,000 jobs in November.
Economists had expected employment to climb by 160,000 jobs compared to the addition of 227,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The unemployment rate in the U.S. edged down to 4.1% in December from 4.2% in November. The rate was expected to come in unchanged.
Preliminary data from the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment in the U.S. has unexpectedly seen a modest deterioration in the month of January, The report said the consumer sentiment index edged down to 73.2 in January from 74.0 in December. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 74.5.
Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2025 AFX News
