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Gold, bitcoin prices pull back as US jobs data beats expectations

After an impressive rally that brought bullion to record levels earlier this week, gold was trading down more than 1.48% during Friday morning's trading.

At the time of writing gold, was trading at $2,031 an ounce, down from highs near $2,100 on Thursday, after the release of better than expected jobs data. The U.S. Labor Department's non-farm payroll report noted the U.S. added more than 1.7 million jobs. Surveyed economists by Reuters expected 1.6 million new jobs to be added, as reported by The FT.

"The non-farm payroll report confirmed economic data is plateauing and that the third quarter rebound everyone expected is not happening," noted Edward Moya, senior markets analyst at OANDA. "The labor market did not deteriorate and risky assets along with the dollar initially rallied after the upward surprise in payrolls. Many traders were expecting a possible negative print, but that pessimism will only move to next month as that report will include much of the slowdown that stemmed from the virus resurgence in the second-wave states."

Traders had been piling into gold as fears stemming from uncertainty around the global economy and mounting central bank debt make inflation hedges more attractive. Indeed, recent investor inflows into gold-backed ETFs resulted in such funds holding more gold than that of the government of Germany, standing only behind the U.S.'reserves, as reported by Bloomberg.

As for bitcoin, the price of the digital asset was trading down more than 2% after closely touching $12,000 late on Thursday. At last check, it was trading at $11,671 a coin.


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