mines prices markets

Silver prices were down by as much as 89 cents an ounce on Friday afternoon, before rebounding late in the day for a gain of 20 cents to $31.15. The U.S. dollar index was up by a marginal 0.1% at $78.71.

TheBriefing.com forecast was for the private sector to add 136,000 jobs and for nonfarm payrolls to increase by 91,000. The actual private sector jobs added in September was 137,000 and nonfarm payrolls increased by 103,000. Gold traders had said headed into the employment reading that it could wind up being a coin flip for gold, and the seesaw action on Friday in gold and silver seemed to reflect this opinion. As the jobs data was digested on Friday, the initial reading of the headline number gave way to a more pessimistic take on the details -- more part-time workers, more people out of work for longer periods of time -- and a downgrade by Fitch Ratings of Spain and Italian debt added to a fragile market.

"This week's jobs picture seems a little bit muddled," said Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco.com before the jobs data was released, "because the ADP report was encouraging, then the initial jobless claims, albeit coming in a little bit better than expected, were still not that stellar. I think the whole week is a seesaw." ...READ MORE