Gold futures rose during the first four days of this week, but then gave back much of the gains as the U.S. dollar rose Friday in the aftermath of a strong U.S. nonfarm payrolls report and Institute for Supply management survey on the manufacturing sector. Around 1:30 p.m. EDT, June gold was up $4.80, or 0.4%, for the week to $1,223.50 an ounce. May silver was down 13 cents, or 0.9%, to $15.07.
The euro, meanwhile, traded as far south as $1.13348 from $1.13803 late Thursday, although the single European currency was recovering Friday afternoon.
Sean Lusk, director of commercial hedging with Walsh Trading, characterized gold’s weakness on the final day of the week as fund profit-taking after one of the best quarters in years. Spot gold rose 16% during the January-March period, before pulling back on the first day of April.
“The dollar has been the main driver, more than anything else,” said Charles Nedoss, senior market strategist with LaSalle Futures Group, but also adding that the metal at one point was down around the 50-day moving average. “Where we are going with (U.S. interest) rates here is anybody’s guess. It seems to me even though you had some positive economic news today, the odds of them (Fed policymakers) doing anything in June are still pretty low.”
Nonfarm payrolls rose 215,000 in March, the Labor Department reported Friday. The ISM’s headline reading rose to 51.8%, the first time in six months it was above the key 50% level that is the dividing line between contraction and expansion in the sector, after 49.5% in February
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