PRECIOUS-Gold up on bleak U.S. payrolls data; stronger dollar caps gains

(Updates prices)
* U.S. nonfarm payrolls drop 701,000 in March
* Dollar heads for weekly rise of more than 2%
* Palladium down 4.8% so far this week
* Interactive graphic tracking the global spread: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
in an external browser

By Sumita Layek
April 3 (Reuters) - Gold prices edged higher on Friday after
gloomy U.S. nonfarm payrolls data magnified the economic toll
from the coronavirus, although a stronger dollar capped
bullion's advance.
Spot gold XAU= was up 0.4% to $1,619.40 per ounce at 1:32
p.m. EDT (1732 GMT). U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled 0.5%
higher at $1,645.70 per ounce.
"Gold continues to be in wait-and-see mode on how bad the
global economy will get and how long will the depression-like
conditions last," said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at
broker OANDA.
The U.S. economy shed 701,000 jobs in March, ending a
historic 113 straight months of employment growth, as stringent
measures to control the coronavirus outbreak hurt businesses and
factories, confirming a recession is underway. The dollar .DXY firmed against rivals, edging towards a
more than 2% weekly rise, as global recession fears intensified.
USD/
"Most traders would expect gold to be higher" after the
payrolls data, Moya said. "Gold's problem is that supply
tightness is easing and the dollar continues to grind higher.
"Ultimately gold will shine from all the fiscal and monetary
stimulus being pumped into markets globally," he added.
Swiss precious metals refinery PAMP has been given
permission by local authorities to restart operations and will
begin processing at less than 50% capacity, it said on
Friday. On Thursday, gold gained more than 1% after the number of
Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits last week shot
to a record high as more jurisdictions enforced stay-at-home
measures to curb the pandemic. Global cases of the new coronavirus have shot past 1
million, with more than 53,000 fatalities, a Reuters tally
showed on Friday. "Technically, even when everything sold off in the market,
gold sold off the least. That tells you gold is strong, people
want to own it. So theoretically, gold should be the leading
asset for the next six to eight months," said Michael Matousek,
head trader at U.S. Global Investors.
Reflecting investors' interest in bullion, holdings of the
world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold
Trust GLD , rose 0.3% to 971.97 tonnes on Thursday. GOL/ETF
Among other precious metals, palladium XPD= slipped 2.1%
to $2,166.37 an ounce, putting it on track for a weekly decline
of 4.8%. Platinum XPT= dipped 1.5% to $716.23, and was down
3.2% so far this week.
Silver XAG= shed 1.4% to $14.33 per ounce.