Gold fell to a new low Friday below $1,300 an ounce after U.S. employment data was stronger than economists expected.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the stateside economy added 223,000 jobs in May while the unemployment rate was 3.8%. Economists had been expecting a gain of 3.9% and the jobless level to hold at 3.9%. The May numbers follow an initially reported 164,000 new jobs in April.
Gold is highly sensitive to rising rates, which increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
Spot gold traded down 0.4% at $1,292.16 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures for August delivery were down 0.7% at $1,296.20 U.S. an ounce.
Gold took little direction from currency markets on Friday, as a coalition deal put an apparent end to a political crisis in Italy, allowing the euro to stabilize against the dollar.
Among other precious metals, spot silver was up 0.7% at $16.46 U.S. an ounce, while platinum gained 1.1% to $911.10 U.S. an ounce and palladium rose 0.2% to $987.06 U.S. an ounce.
Platinum saw the strongest gains among the major precious metals this week, rising 1.6%.
