Gold Goes On Roller Coaster Ride Before Closing Nearly Flat

(RTTNews) - The price of gold saw substantial volatility during trading on Friday before eventually ending the session roughly flat.

After showing wild swings back and forth across the unchanged line, gold for February delivery closed down just $0.20 or less than a tenth of a percent at $2,049.80 an ounce.

The roughly flat close came after gold reached a low of $2,030.80 an ounce and a high of $2,071.10 an ounce.

The volatility seen by gold on the day came as the U.S. dollar has also been on a roller coaster ride following the release of some key U.S. economic data.

Gold initially slumped following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing stronger than expected job growth in December.

The data raised concerns about the outlook for interest rates and contributed to a jump by the dollar, although the worries eased as traders digested the details of the report, which also showed notable downward revisions to job growth in October and November.

The price of gold subsequently regained ground and surged into positive territory after a separate report from the Institute for Supply Management showed a bigger than expected slowdown in the pace of U.S. service sector growth.

The ISM said its services PMI fell to 50.6 in December from 52.7 in November. While a reading above 50 still indicates growth, economists had expected the index to show a much more modest decrease to 52.6.

Buying interest waned shortly afterward, however, with gold pulling back toward the unchanged as traders looked ahead to the release of key U.S. inflation data next week.