Oil, gold steady after rout, focus on US jobs data

Commodities prices steadied on Friday in Asia as Brent crude oil, spot gold and silver pared back some of the brutal losses suffered on Thursday when investors stampeded for the exits on worries that global growth was slowing down.

Investors' eyes are shifting to US jobs data due later on Friday to gauge if concerns over the health of the world's biggest economy are misplaced or not.

After falling one point on Thursday by a record USD 12 to below USD 110 a barrel, Brent crude recovered to above USD 112 on Friday.

Gold rose 1% and silver, which slumped a day earlier by almost USD 5 an ounce for its biggest one-day fall on record, rebounded around 2%.

The sudden sell off on Thursday has raised concerns among investors that the commodities bull run may be coming to an end.

Questions about the health of the US economy after some soft data and a 30% loss in spot silver from highs late in April gave bears incentive to drive markets lower.

A steadier tone to markets in Asia on Friday gave investors pause for thought. "There's no real and convincing reason for the sudden sell-off in risky assets," said Yingxi Yu, commodity analyst at Barclays Capital. "This was mainly a sentiment-driven correction."

But other analysts said worries are mounting over the US economic recovery after recent patchy data, including a slowdown in the economy's giant services sector and hiring by private companies.

"From a fundamental point of view, people are really starting to question where the US economic recovery is and whether asset prices should be at such high levels," said Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney. "Is the US economy going to fall flat or behave itself? People are starting to rethink."

Brent crude oil rose 1.2% to USD 112.08 a barrel and US crude gained 0.9% to USD 100.65, with a weaker dollar supporting the rebound.

Spot gold rose more than 1% to USD 1,487.25 an ounce, snapping a four-day losing streak and spot silver jumped more than 2% to USD 35.45.

"I think fundamentals haven't changed that much," said Barclays Capital's Yu. "Oil, for example, is still a very tight market. I can't say for how long this correction can last but I would think that beyond the short term, the prospect of a rebound still looks pretty good."