Los Angeles CA, January 5 (Tangible Investments) by James O’ Dell Precious metals prices were mixed on Friday with Gold on pace for fourth straight weekly gain. Gold is down 0.26 percent to $1,318.60 an ounce after surging $9.50 on Thursday to close at $1,322.00 an ounce.

Silver is down 0.12 percent to $17.18 an ounce after gaining $0.10 on Thursday to close at $17.20 an ounce. The Gold/Silver ratio rose to 76.86 as Gold outperformed Silver. Platinum is up 0.42 percent to $966.00 an ounce. Palladium is down 0.64 percent to $1,085.00 an ounce.

Gold dipped in early trading Friday following a weaker-than-expected jobs report but remains on pace for fourth straight weekly gain. The yellow metal started the New Year above $1,300 an ounce after climbing more than 13 percent last year.

January has historically been a strong month for Gold, with prices rising on average a little over 4 percent for the past 10 years. This has traditionally been tied into strong physical demand leading into Chinese New Year, which has yet to materialize this year, says Alex Thorndike, senior precious-metals dealer with MKS (Switzerland) S.A.

The Labor Department reported Friday that non-farm payrolls increased by just 148k jobs in December, well below expectations of +190k. The jobless rate remained steady at 4.1, which was in line with expectations and wages rose 0.3 percent, which was also expected.

Fed President Expects Under 2.5 Percent Growth

Meanwhile, Philadelphia Fed President Harker said Friday that the U.S. Central Bank should increase interest rates just twice in 2018. In remarks to the annual American Economic Association, Harker said he expects the economy to grow under 2.5 percent.

There is little slack left in the labor market, said Harker. If soft inflation persists, it may pose a significant problem, including making it more difficult to bring inflation back to healthy levels. For that reason, my own view is that two rate increases are likely to be appropriate for 2018.

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