Gold futures accelerated their losses on Friday after the government reported that non-farm payrolls rose more than expected in October, providing a further boost to the U.S. dollar.
Gold for December delivery slumped $21.40, or 1.2%, to trade at $1,694.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract had been trading around $1,708 right before the U.S. Labor Department said that non-farm payrolls rose by 171,000 in October, which was higher than the 120,000 increase in jobs expected by economists.
Also, more people were hired in the prior two months than previously believed. However, the unemployment rate — which is derived from a separate survey — edged up to 7.9% from 7.8%, as expected.
The jobs data further buoyed the dollar, weighing on gold futures.
The ICE dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major global currencies, climbed to 80.514 in recent trade from 80.052 late in North America Thursday. A stronger dollar tends to pressure prices of dollar-denominated commodities such as gold since it makes them more expensive for holders of other currencies.
But the yellow metal was expected by some analysts to find some support around current prices after losing more than 4% over the past one month.
Meanwhile, December silver futures fell 50 cents to $31.75 U.S. an ounce and December copper futures dropped three cents to $3.52 U.S. a pound.
December palladium futures dropped 0.7% to $608 U.S. an ounce, while platinum for delivery in January lost 1% to $1,556.80 U.S. an ounce.
