Gold Gives Back Ground But Posts Strong Weekly Gain

(RTTNews) - After ending the previous session slightly higher, the price of gold moved back to the downside during trading on Friday.

Gold for March delivery fell $11.90 or 0.4 percent to $2,904.70 an ounce after inching up $1.30 or less than a tenth of a percent to $2,916.60 an ounce on Thursday.

Despite the pullback on the day, the price of gold for March delivery surged by 2.4 percent for the week, marking its biggest weekly gain since last November.

The decrease by the price of crude oil came even though the value of the U.S. dollar saw further downside following the release of disappointing jobs data, with the U.S. dollar index slipping 0.2 percent to 103.88.

The Labor Department released a report showing non-farm payroll employment climbed by 151,000 jobs in February after rising by a downwardly revised 125,000 jobs in January.

Economists had expected employment to grow by 160,000 jobs compared to the addition of 143,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report also said the unemployment crept up to 4.1 percent in February from 4.1 percent in January, while economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.