By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - The naysayers had all but written off gold's chances for a rebound. But it took just one dismal U.S. jobs report to prove them wrong.
The spot price of bullion, as well as futures of gold, breached the magical $1,300 mark on Friday after the Labor Department reported growth of just around 20,000 jobs for February versus market expectations for 181,000 new positions.
Gold futures for April delivery hit a one-week high of $1,301.25 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It settled at $1,299.30, up $13.20, or 1%, on the day.
Spot gold, reflective of trades in physical bullion, also hit a one-week peak in intraday trade, reaching $1,300.80 before consolidating to $1,299.28 by 2:30 PM (19:30 GMT), up $13.65, or 1%, on the day.
U.S. jobs data aside, gold also saw a surfeit of safe-haven buying on renewed worries about economic growth in Europe and China.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said eurozone economies were in "a period of continued weakness and pervasive uncertainty".
China's dollar-denominated February exports, meanwhile, fell 21% percent from a year earlier, representing the biggest drop in three years. The world's second-largest economy also suffered a 5.2% drop in imports last month.
Gold hit 10-month peaks just shy of 1,350 an ounce on Feb. 20, a month after getting to the $1,300 level. It fell under that critical price point last Friday after a heightened rally in the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies. In the latest session, the dollar fell 0.4% to 97.28, from the previous session's three-month highs of 97.67.
"We favor looking for bearish setups on the dollar against gold and silver, given the renewed weaknesses in government bond yields" after the U.S. jobs data and combined dreary outlooks for Europe and China, said Fawad Razaqzada, a London-based analyst for forex.com.
Palladium prices fell on Friday but retained its standing as the world's costliest metal due to its wide premium against gold.
The spot price of palladium slid by 14.40, or 0.9%, to 1,512.80 per ounce by 2:30 PM. Spot palladium hit a record high of $1,569.40 last week on fears of short supply.
Trades in other Comex metals as of 2:30 PM ET (19:30 GMT):
Palladium futures down $13.95, or 0.1%, at $1,468.45 per ounce.
Platinum futures up $1.35 or 0.2%, at $818.45 per ounce.
Silver futures up 31 cents, or 2.1%, at $15.35 per ounce.
Copper futures down 1 cent, or 0.4%, at $2.90 per pound.