Gold futures ended higher on Friday as the latest weekly US jobs data disappointed investors. The gold futures contract gained 0.6 percent or $10.40 to settle at $1,645.20 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold has gained 1.2 percent for the week.

The precious metal remained volatile the whole session mainly due to higher greenback but the disappointing figure of Jobs created in April supported the gold prices at the end. As per the data of the Labor Department, 115,000 jobs were created in the month of April as compared to expected figure of 163,000 jobs.

The dollar index DXY which measures the greenback’s performance gained to 79.508 on Friday as compared to 79.213 on Thursday’s North American trading session. Stronger US dollar makes the precious metal and other commodities expensive for the investors holding foreign currencies.

Gold also had a support in reaction to the political uncertainties in the single currency region as France and Greece were getting ready for electoral polls over the weekend.

Analyst, Edward Meir from INTL FCStone Inc commented, “We should have an interesting day on Monday, as markets will have a chance to assess how exactly the European landscape will change, we suspect that in the weeks ahead there will be pressure on the Europeans to ease up on austerity measures and introduce more in the way of stimulus, something that theoretically should weaken the euro in the short-run.”

Among other base metals, copper futures contract for July delivery fell 0.4 percent or $0.02 to settle at $3.72 per pound while the silver futures for the same month gained 1.4 percent or $0.42 to end at $30.43 per ounce. For the week copper fell 2.7 percent while silver was down by 3 percent.

Platinum futures for July delivery advanced 0.2 percent or $2.90 to settle at $1,536 per ounce while its sister metal palladium futures for June delivery fell 1.4 percent or $9.20 to settle at $652.15 per ounce. Platinum fell 2.5 percent for the week while palladium slipped 4.3 percent.