XN: Gold gains slightly on weak dollar after earlier sharp decline
CHICAGO, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose a little on Friday, after dipping below 990 U.S. dollars earlier in the morning session. Silver and platinum both ended lower.
Gold price for December delivery gained 3.60 dollars, or 0.4 percent, to finish at 1,004.30 dollars an ounce. Earlier in the session, the contract hit the intraday low of 987 dollars.
The news of U.S. employers cutting more jobs than expected disappointed investors. On Friday morning, the Labor Department said that the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, hitting the highest level since June 1983. Meanwhile, a net total of 263,000 non-farm jobs were lost last month, compared with a downwardly revised 201,000 in August. That's much worse than economists' expectations of 180,000 job losses.
Dragged by the bearish jobless data, gold plummeted quickly below 990 dollars, losing about 10 dollars in only 5 minutes.
A weak dollar helped the precious metal bounce during the rest of the session.
The dollar index, a gauge measuring the greenback's value against a basket of major currencies, slumped 0.337 to 76.935 from77.272 on late Tuesday, fueling gold's appeal of hedge and pushing the yellow metal back above the key level of 1,000 dollars.
December silver finished at 16.23 dollars per ounce, down 42.8 cents. January platinum lost 5.90 dollars to 1,283.40 dollars an ounce.
