LONDON (SHARECAST) - Oil prices finished below $70 a barrel on Friday after worse than expected jobs data sparked concern about the strength of the economic recovery. US crude for November delivery fell 87 cents to settle at $69.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session the contract hit a low of $68.27. Friday’s Labor Department nonfarm payrolls report showed employers cut 263,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate rose to 9.8%, a sixteen year high. Most economists had predicted around 180,000 jobs losses. A weaker dollar helped cap a bigger fall in oil prices however and despite Friday’s decline, crude managed gains of 6% over the week after the previous week’s 8% decline. Among precious metals gold settled above the $1,000 mark as the dollar eased against major currencies. The greenback was pressured by renewed fears about the economic recovery following Friday’s jobs data. COMEX gold for December delivery climbed $3.60 to settle at $1,004.30 an ounce. The yellow metal hit a record closing high of $1,020.20 a fortnight ago but has since struggled to reclaim such highs. Silver for December delivery fell 21 cents to $16.23 an ounce while December copper futures declined 5.55 cents to $2.6815 a pound.

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