Gold prices ride rollercoaster on US jobs report

Gold prices rode a rollercoaster Friday, regaining some ground after yesterday’s sharp losses right ahead the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published strong job numbers, to fall sharply after the announcement.

Spot Gold was trading above $1,234 an ounce in New York at 8:00 am ET, but fell to almost 1,216 as the US agency published the job report, saying the country added 203,000 workers to nonfarm payrolls in November, above the 185,000 consensus Wall Street estimate.

Unemployment rate in the US fell to 7.0% from 7.3% in October. Economists predicted a smaller decline to 7.2%.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said personal income edged down by 0.1% in October after increasing by 0.5% in September. Economist did not expect the drop, as they had expected income to increase by 0.3%.

Around 9:00 am, an hour after the jobs report, spot gold had jumped up 4.8% to 1,230 an ounce.

The precious metal has been under pressure as markets believe a recovering economy could prompt the Fed to slow the pace of its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases as soon as December.

The Federal Reserve, which holds its next meeting on December 17-18, has said the timing of its tapering depends on the health of the labour and housing markets.

Gold is down about 28% this year, heading for the first annual loss in 13 years, as solid U.S. economic data has underlined expectations the Fed will begin curbing stimulus.