Gold down a fourth session to suffer a weekly loss

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A weaker-than-expected U.S. July jobs report and a fall in the dollar helped gold rebound from a drop of more than $25 an ounce during Friday’s session, but prices still marked the first weekly loss in four weeks.

Gold prices clawed back from intraday lows under $1,300 an ounce after July payrolls growth came in short of expectations, leading analysts to say plans for the Federal Reserve to taper its bond buying could be pushed further out.

Gold for December delivery (CNS:GCZ3) settled at $1,310.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 70 cents, or less than 0.1%, for the session.

After initially moving sharply higher after the jobs data, it seesawed between small losses and gains, then closed slightly lower as U.S. equities traded off session lows, drawing some attention away from gold. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-heads-f...=afterbell