Gold rebounds as safe option for investors

The price for an ounce of gold added 1.5 percent, or $23.50, to close out the week at $1,575.90 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Silver added 1.69 percent, or 45 cents, Friday to close at $27.22 an ounce. Metals found fresh popularity after a U.S. Department of Labor report that 88,000 jobs were added to the economy in March and the unemployment rate dropped one tick to 7.6 percent. The report made it clear that the falling unemployment rate was due to workers giving up their job searches, rather than because of new jobs created. The low job gains were largely unexpected. The consensus forecast called for an additional 200,000 jobs created in March. Equities took a hit and metals were suddenly popular as a safer option. Against the dollar, the euro was higher at $1.2995 from Thursday's $1.2936. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 97.55 yen from Thursday's 96.34 yen.