Gold and Silver Start June With a BANG

On Friday, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) futures for August delivery spiked $57.90 to settle at $1,622.10 per ounce, while silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) futures gained 76 cents to close at $28.51.

Despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) and the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) falling around 2 percent, gold and silver surged more than 3 percent as the latest jobs report renewed more stimulus speculation. In May, the American economy added only 69,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2 percent. It was a huge miss as economists were expecting around 150,000 new jobs for the month. Furthermore, April’s new jobs number of 115,000 was revised down to just 77,000.

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“The weak jobs report confirms that the U.S. is vulnerable to a European situation that is going from bad to worse,” said Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of PIMCO. “The report’s details speak to an unemployment crisis that is getting more stubbornly embedded in the structure of the economy. Looking forward, the employment situation will be further challenged by an ongoing synchronized global slowing.” Unemployment has now remained above 8 percent for 40 consecutive months, the worst streak since the Great Depression era.

In afternoon trading, the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) jumped 4.0 percent, while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV) gained 2.5 percent. Gold miners (NYSEARCA:GDX) such as Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) and Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) both surged more than 7 percent. Silver investments such as Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW) and First Majestic (NYSE:AG) increased 4.47 percent and 5.95 percent, respectively.

As the chart below shows, investors clearly viewed gold and silver as true safe-havens today:

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Disclosure: Long EXK, AG, HL, PHYS