Investing.com -- Gold prices and bond yields seesawed on Friday after a stronger-than-expected labor market report that showed the U.S. economy still creating jobs at a decent clip, despite the U.S.-China trade war and the strike at General Motors (NYSE:GM).
The U.S. economy added 128,000 jobs in October, more than the 89,000 expected. September’s number meanwhile was revised up to 180,000 from 136,000.
The news sent money fleeing from haven assets and into stocks, with both the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 hitting new all-time highs.
However, gold futures rebounded from an intraday low of $1,505 after the ISM manufacturing survey showed the sector still in contractionary territory, with falling prices and lower incoming orders.
By 10:25 AM ET, gold futures for delivery on the Comex exchange had reversed their losses and were effectively unchanged on the day at $1,514.95 a troy ounce, while spot gold was at $1,512.56, also unchanged on the day.
Silver futures were up 0.1% at $18.08 an ounce, while platinum futures were up 1.0% at $943.40.
Treasury bond yields, however, failed to reverse entirely, and were some two basis points higher all along the yield curve.
“Stronger-than-expected U.S. payrolls with decent upward revisions supports the case for a December Fed pause, but we are nervous about weakness in business surveys and the likelihood that employment growth will continue to trend lower,” said James Knightley, chief international economist with ING, in a blog post.