Platinum falls below $1,000 as dollar muscles up

Platinum prices fell over one percent in American trade as the dollar index gained ground, following earlier data from the US, and ahead of Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams' speech later today. 

As of 02:51 GMT, platinum fell 1.30% to $994.65 an ounce from the opening of $1,007.72, while the dollar index rose 0.55% to 89.16 from the opening of 88.67. 

Earlier US data showed the unemployment rate settled at 4.1% in line with expectations, the lowest since earlier 2001, while average hourly earnings slowed down to 0.4% from 0.4% in December, beating expectations of 0.3%. 

The economy added 200 thousand new jobs in January, up from 160K in December, and beating expectations of 181K. 

US factory orders rose 1.7%, same as before and beating expectations of 1.5%.