Morning Call: Gold Spikes Amid Disappointing Jobs Growth; NatGas & Oil Fall With Stock Markets
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers added 113K jobs in January, well below the 180K increase that was expected. At the same time, December's job gain was left essentially unchanged at 75K.
On the positive side, the BLS said that the unemployment rate ticked down from 6.7 percent to 6.6 percent, the lowest rate since Oct. 2008. The fall in the unemployment rate came despite an increase in the labor force; the labor force participation rate edged up from 62.8 percent to 63 percent. Importantly, the nonfarm payrolls figure and the unemployment rate are derived from separate surveys, which may help explain the mixed message from these reports.
Other data from the BLS showed that average hourly earnings in January rose by 0.2 percent, as expected. On a year-over-year basis, wages were up by 1.9 percent. Average weekly hours worked was unchanged at 34.4. Taking a look at currency markets, the U.S. Dollar Index was last trading up by 0.04 percent to 80.94. In bond markets, the U.S. 10-year yield sunk 4 basis points to 2.66 percent.
Gold is rallying amid a jump in safe-haven demand. The yellow metal was last trading higher by $9.21, to 0.73 percent, to $1,267.41, while silver edged up fractionally to $19.98.
Platinum gained $10.38, or 0.75 percent, to $1,387.50 and palladium advanced $4.70, or 0.68 percent, to $715.35.