Gold prices find little support as investors parse historic U.S. jobs report for April

Gold futures found only modest support on Friday, as traders parsed data showing a loss of more than 20 million U.S. jobs in April tied to efforts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but prices for the precious metal look to end the week a bit higher.

The coronavirus pandemic destroyed 20.5 million U.S. jobs in April, driving the unemployment rate to a post Word War II high of 14.7% as the country faced its biggest economic crisis in almost a century, according to data from the Labor Department Friday. Still, the loss of jobs was a bit less the 22.1 million forecast of economists surveyed by MarketWatch.