Data released on Friday showed that nonfarm payrolls in the United States increased by 178,000 jobs in March, marking the largest monthly gain since December 2024, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent.
The yield on the US 10 year Treasury and the dollar index both rose, putting pressure on gold, which is priced in dollars. Brent crude also increased as global energy supplies continued to be affected by the US Israeli war on Iran.
Traders have now almost completely ruled out any chance of a Federal Reserve rate cut this year. Before the war, there had been expectations of two rate cuts during the year.
In spot trading, silver fell by 1.4 percent to 71.98 dollars per ounce, platinum dropped by 0.9 percent to 1970.38 dollars, while palladium remained steady at 1503.52 dollars.