Gold futures returned to values north of the threshold price $1,600 per troy ounce on Friday after the U.S. Labor Department indicated the nation's jobless rate climbed last month, according to Bloomberg.
The unemployment rate climbed to 8.3 percent, an increase from the 8.2 percent where it had been since early this year. That economic data is likely to be among factors considered by the U.S. Federal Reserve as it ponders methods to prompt growth and development, such as a third round of quantitative easing.
"Even with the better-than-expected payroll number, it's not sufficiently big to change the big-picture view," chief economist Stephen Stanley with Pierpoint Securities told Reuters. "The economy is growing, but not at a satisfactory rate to bring down unemployment. If the Fed had considered doing QE3, I suspect today's number pushes them half a step back."
At 2:08 p.m. on Friday, gold futures climbed 1.06 percent, a $16.80 increase to $1,607.50 per troy ounce.
Though the unemployment rate rose, job creation figures did as well, according to The Wall Street Journal. July saw the creation of 163,000 new jobs, which trumped projections of 95,000 new jobs last month.
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