Gold futures turned lower on Friday, trimming their weekly gains after a resoundingly positive U.S. jobs report generated interest riskier assets.
April gold settled at $1,740.30, down $19, or 1.1 percent on the day. With the decline, gold fell from an 11-week high. Lingering concerns abut Europe's sovereign debt crisis put a cap on the daily loss.
The U.S. economy added far more jobs than were expected in the month of January, according to new government statistics released Friday, with the job growth unexpectedly pushing the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent, its lowest level in almost 3 years.
The Labor Department report showed that the non-farm payroll employment jumped by 243,000 jobs in January following a revised increase of 203,000 jobs in December. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 140,000 jobs.
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