By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Gold dug its heels into the $1,600 territory on Friday, ending its second week there, as investors turned again to the comfort of safe havens after epic U.S. job losses for March from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The United States lost 701,000 jobs in March as the pandemic bumped up the nation’s unemployment rate by the most in a month since 1975, the Labor Department said in its monthly employment report on Friday.
The report came on the heels of Thursday’s weekly jobless claims by the department that showed a record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance for the week ended March 28.
Gold futures on New York’s COMEX settled up $8, or 0.5%, at $1,633.70 per ounce. For the week, the futures contract also gained about 0.5%.
Spot gold, which tracks live trades in bullion, was up $7.48, or 0.5% at $1,621.76 by 4:00 PM ET (20:00 GMT). For the week, bullion dipped 0.1%.
“Gold volatility will remain high over the coming weeks, and despite this down week, prices should be supported in the long term as the impact of Covid-19 intensifies across the world,” said Edward Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA.
”Fiscal and monetary stimulus will likely need to remain in place a lot longer and that should ultimately be the backbone of gold’s bullish stance.”