Gold and silver prices fall after US employment figures

On Friday, October 7, 2022, the precious metals gold and silver fell in value following the recent U.S. jobs report for September. The dollar value of gold per ounce is close to falling below $1,700, while the price of silver is teetering near the $20 mark.

Precious metals price patterns are following the stock market rush and Friday’s crypto-currency carnage.

Just before the weekend, major Wall Street indexes fell as the latest U.S. jobs report for September has investors believing the Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive rate hikes. Bitcoin prices slid 3.4%, ethereum fell 3.2% in the last 24 hours. The entire crypto-economy hovering around $979 billion on Friday, and it is down 2.4%. In addition to the crypto-economy, the four major EU stock markets are crashing. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium are down 0.64% to 3.32%.

Jim Wyckoff, senior precious metals market analyst and columnist at Kitco explained Friday that the data from the U.S. jobs report was “arguably the most important U.S. data point of the week.“Wyckoff noted that the official data was 263,000 jobs,”which was just below the expected increase of 275,000.“Wyckoff said the news may prompt the U.S. central bank to maintain its aggressive stance.

“The August report showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 315,000. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent in September, which was lower than expected“, Mr. Wyckoff wrote on Friday. “The August unemployment rate was 3.7 percent. Average hourly earnings were up 4.98% from this time last year. The market believes that the jobs report did nothing to deter the Federal Reserve from continuing its aggressively tight monetary policy” added the senior market analyst.

Like the equity and crypto-currency markets, the gold markets have felt the pressure of the latest US data point. At the time of this writing, the U.S. dollar face value of a troy ounce of fine 999 gold is 1,701.40 per unit. Some exchanges saw gold fall below $1,700 on Friday as well, to $1,699 per ounce.

Silver is also close to breaking below $20 on Friday, as it is at $20.35 nominal USD per ounce of silver heading into the weekend. The USD value of an ounce of gold is down 0.64% and silver is down 1.87% over the past 24 hours. Platinum is down 0.33% and palladium prices slipped 3.32% on Friday afternoon (ET).

“Technically, December gold futures bears have the overall technical advantage in the short term. However, recent gains are beginning to suggest that a market bottom is in place“, Wyckoff explained. Silver futures, on the bullish side, also have an edge, according to the precious metals market analyst.

“September silver futures bulls have a slight overall technical advantage in the near term. The next upside price target for silver bulls is the close of prices above solid technical resistance at $22.00. The next downside price target for bears is the close of price below solid support at $19.00“, Wyckoff’s report details.

The analyst’s statements regarding the formation of a market bottom are similar to Mike McGlone’s recent analysis. The Bloomberg Intelligence commodities analyst explained in a recent commodities report for October that he sees the price of gold forming in a similar fashion to what he did in 1999.

In addition to the fact that gold will resume its rally in the near future, McGlone added in his October crypto-currency report that when the “economic tide turns“, Mr. McGlone and his team will see “the propensity to resume“for bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) and he thinks they will “Outperform most major assets“.