Silver drops on pressure from the dollar’s strength

Silver traded lower on Friday as the dollar’s advance to a record high dented the appeal of all dollar-denominated commodities.

The dollar index, which tracks the green currency’s movements versus a basket of major currencies, rose near an 11 1/2-year high around 97.58 after the release of better than forecast U.S. jobs report.   

U.S. nonfarm payrolls signaled 295,000 jobs were created last month from 257,000 in January, surpassing forecasts of 240,000 jobs.

The jobless rate dropped to 5.5 percent, better than economists’ forecasts of 5.6 percent, compared to 5.7 percent in January, the NFP report showed.

The precious metal is still moving in a downside direction, despite the rebound recorded in January, where it has lost near 2 percent on Friday.

So far, the metal has lost 4.30 percent this week, following a gain of 2.65 percent the previous week.

The silver continued to track the losses in gold and other precious metals, noting gold has dropped 2.64 percent today.

Regarding other commodities, Brent crude fell to a low of $59.16, after opening today’s trades at $60.68.