国际英语新闻：Gold rallies on worse-than-expected U.S. unemployment

CHICAGO, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rallied on Friday after the Labor Department said U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined by 95,000 in September. Silver also climbed.

The most active gold contract for December delivery headed up 10.3 dollars, or 0.77 percent, to close at 1,345.3 dollars per ounce.

The gold price posted a weak running in early Friday as investors took profits, but then started to rally after the weak unemployment reading in the United States.

The Labor Department said on Friday that the total nonfarm payrolls declined by 95,000, which was much worse than expected. Besides, the unemployment rate stayed at 9.6 percent and the private sector added 64,000 jobs in September.

Traders noted that the disappointing employment number in the nonfarm sector would give a further push to the U.S. Federal Reserve to carry out the quantitative easing policy at its next meeting in November.

As a result, the U.S. dollar index further slipped 0.05 percent to 77.36 in the day. The dollar also sank 0.3 percent to a near-15- year low of 82.04 against the yen.

A metal trader noted the uptrend in gold would continue because the dollar "just continues to lose ground" and the jobs number just reinforces the expectation over additional quantitative easing.

Meanwhile, other precious metals also saw expansion. December silver gained 52.1 cents, or 2.3 percent, to 22.584 dollars per ounce. January platinum rose 3.7 dollars, or 0.2 percent, to 1,708. 7 dollars per ounce.