2020.08.0718:59:00UTC+00Gold Futures Snap 5-day Winning Streak, Settle Sharply Lower

Gold futures snapped a five-session winning streak and settled sharply lower on Friday as the dollar firmed up against major peers after data showed a bigger than expected increase in U.S. jobs growth in July.

Gold declined today despite rising U.S.-China tensions and reports saying there are signs of a second wave of coronavirus infections emerging in Europe.

The failure of U.S. Democratic leaders and White House officials to make any meaningful progress on a new coronavirus aid bill contributed a bit to gold's decline.

The dollar index rallied to 93.62 around mid morning, and despite easing to 93.45 subsequently, was still firmly placed in positive territory with a gain of over 0.7%.

Gold futures for December ended down $41.40 or about 2% at $2,028.00 an ounce, after hitting a high of $2,071.00 an ounce intraday.

Gold futures posted a gain of about 2.2% in the week.

Silver futures for September closed lower by $0.860 at $27.540 an ounce, while Copper futures for September settled at $2.7925 per pound, down $0.1180 from previous close.

Data from the Labor Department showed that employment rose by 1.763 million jobs in July after climbing by a downwardly revised 4.791 million jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to rise by 1.6 million jobs compared to the 4.8 million job spike originally reported for the previous month.

The unemployment rate fell to 10.2% in July from 11.1% in June. The rate was expected to drop to 10.5%.