Gold rises as other metals decline on jobs data, debt worries

Most metals prices were lower Friday, but August gold added $7.70 to $1,217.70 per troy ounce in New York trade as the dollar strengthened, the euro weakened, equities markets were lower and debt problems in Europe returned to focus.

Concerns about economic conditions in Europe were rekindled after a spokesman for Hungary’s prime minister said that the previous government there had manipulated economic data and lied about the state of the economy there, and hinted that a default for the nation is not out of the question.

Also worrying was new employment data from the US Labor Department, which reported that not as many jobs were created in May than had been anticipated, with many of the new government jobs being temporary positions related to carrying out the 2010 census.

While gold prices were up, July silver was down 63 cents to $17.29 per troy ounce while July platinum fell $17.60 to $1,525.30 per troy ounce and September palladium dropped $19.80 to $431 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, July copper fell 13 cents to $2.81 per pound in New York trade while three-month contracts on the London Metal Exchange were down $245 to $6,280 per tonne after going as low as $6,263 per tonne earlier in the session.

The declines came even though copper stockpiles monitored by the LME dropped 1,300 tonnes on the session.

Aluminium prices hit an 8-month low and closed down $74 to $1,881 per tonne as LME inventories fell by 9,075 tonnes but still remained near record highs, while zinc fell to a ten-month low and closed $99 lower to $1,641 per tonne.

Lead was down $38 to $1,607 per tonne while nickel was $750 lower to $17,950 per tonne and tin dropped $1,645 to $16,005 per tonne in London.