Weekly Round-Up: Slight Rises for Gold, Silver to Cap Off Week

Spot gold is currently at $1,293.90 per ounce, having hit a low of $1,278.10 and a high of $1,296.90 earlier today.

It’s likely that US nonfarm payroll numbers, which The Wall Street Journal says “rose by a seasonally adjusted 209,000 last month,” have helped the yellow metal out.

“Tonight’s key nonfarm payrolls will be the decisive factor for gold’s next move,” Reuters quotes MKS Group as saying in a note earlier today. “The market is expecting an addition of 230,000 jobs, if it is well above this number gold is likely to continue to push lower, whilst the yellow metal should find a bid if it’s less than 200,000.”

Spot silver, meanwhile, is up $0.04, at $20.39 per ounce, as per Reuters. Silver futures for September delivery are slightly higher, up $0.12, at $20.54, according to CME Group.

CME Group pegs copper futures on New York’s COMEX as being at $3.23 an ounce, down $0.01. In another article, Reuters places benchmark copper prices on the London Metal Exchange at $7,078.0 per tonne, down $36.81.

Finally, Reuters states that Brent crude oil prices are flat today, at $106.02 a barrel. Investors may have expected prices to be higher given current problems in Russia and the Middle East, but the fact remains that there is a global oil surplus.

“Suddenly, people wake up and realize that even with the geopolitical risks in the world there is this surplus of physical crude,” Tony Nunan, a senior risk manager at Mitsubishi (TSE:8058), told the news outlet.