Gold futures have steadied with the euro after an initial selloff following the monthly U.S. employment report.
The data are not having a lasting effect after choppiness shortly after the data, said one New York trader.
Around 9:07 a.m. EST, most-active April was up 30 cents, or 0.02%, to $1,133.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Most-active May silver added 8.9 cents, or 0.52%, to $17.265.
"Net-net, we're at the same place we were before when we came in this morning," said Charles Nedoss, senior market strategist with Olympus Futures. "The jobs report did not turn out to be the fireworks everyone was looking for."
February nonfarm payrolls fell 36,000, the Labor Department said. The market had been anticipating a 75,000 decline. The unemployment rate held at 9.7% last month, when the expectation had been for an uptick to 9.8%.
Initially, the euro fell to $1.3530 from $1.3577 two minutes ahead of the report. Gold, which tends to move inversely to the dollar, as a result fell to $1,127.50 an ounce.
But, with the labor market still losing jobs last month, the market wasn't in a hurry to factor in any Federal Reserve tightening, and the euro and gold quickly bounced back from their lows. The euro is now around $1.3560.
Mr. Nedoss commented that gold has shown some ability lately to hold up even when the dollar rises. There has been buying of gold in other currencies lately, especially amid ongoing concerns about the debt situation in Greece.
"People are worried about any major currency right now and are getting a little bit more exposure to gold," he said.
