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London gold

fixes mostly

lower

LONDON: The bullion price kept a tenuous hold on $384.00 per ounce after broadly neutral U.S. July employment data were released, but there was scant sign of the market building on this morning's gains, dealers said.

Gold was fixed at $384.00 after $384.35 this morning, the highest of the week and $384.00 on Thursday.

Around the fixing, Comex December was off $0.60 at $389.70.

"I still think this market is more likely to go down rather than up," one analyst said, citing its lack of aggressive moves either way to back his view.

U.S. July additions to non-farm payrolls came out at just 55,000, half the forecast number and compared with June's upwardly revised 250,000.

Analysts characterised the data as neutral for the precious metals and the dollar echoed that by staying broadly level with pre-release rates in Europe.

Gold was expecting producer selling between $384 and $385 which had to be absorbed to spark further gains towards chart resistance at $386.00, analysts said.

In the event, moves above the $384.35 morning fix were tentative at best and were turned back at $384.50.

"It has tried to move before and lost its nerve each time. On Friday they had at least five tries at $384," a dealer said.

Silver succumbed to profit taking around $5.22-$5.23 and lost its way when gold started to run out of steam and drift following the U.S. data.

After touching its highs around midday, silver was indicated just a couple of cents over the close at $5.18/$5.20.

Platinum also edged off with gold to $422.75/$423.75, about $1.25 off its day's high and unchanged overnight.

Palladium quietly moved a little either side of its unchanged $152/$153.-Reuter