Gold & Silver Matters: Daily Market Recap Sept 2

Gold and silver ended the week on a tear … surging as much as three percent … or morein some cases … as investors looked for safe-haven alternatives to stocks. The stampede into precious metals started early today when the Labor Department reported that there was no change in the level of jobs in the United States last month … a shocking disappointment to economists who had expected as many as 70,000 new jobs to be created. Those expectations were pretty modest. Even if they had come true it still would have left the nation’s unemployment level at nine-point-one. But instead … the world's biggest economy added zero new nonfarm jobs. In July, at least, employers had added 85,000 jobs. Ellen Zentner … a senior U-S economist at Nomura Securities International … told Bloomberg that part of the explanation for the flat-line on job creation has to do with the uncertain regulatory and tax outlook that U-S businesses are facing. She said: "When the outlook is uncertain, businesses don't hire. Calls that we're on the cusp of a recession or already there are not completely unwarranted." As disappointing as the numbers were this morning for economists like Zentner … they were even more disappointing to stock investors who sold off and piled into precious metals. On the futures markets … Gold for December delivery … the most actively traded contract on the CME Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange … surged 2.6 percent to settle at $1,876.90 per troy ounce. Gold for immediate delivery jumped to $1,880.36. Silver did even better … on a relative basis. On the futures market it poppedthree-point-six percent to $43.07. Spot silver … meanwhile … rose to $43.32. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 253 points to close at 11,240. the NASDAQ closed down 65 to 2,480.33 and the broadly-based S&P 500 finished the week 30 points lower to close at 1,174.