Dollar, Gold Prices Both Turn Mixed

The dollar fell to another low against the Japanese yen in Tokyo on Friday, later got a brief lift from brighter U.S. economic news and then finished the day mixed in quiet trading.

Gold prices also turned mixed. At Republic National Bank, bullion was quoted at $360.75 an ounce at 4 p.m. EDT, down $1.25 from Thursday’s late bid.

The Labor Department reported that the number of people without jobs fell by 253,000 last month to 8.19 million, the lowest since January and dropping the nation’s civilian unemployment rate two-tenths of a percentage point to 6.9%.

The Commerce Department said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3% in June.

“We did have a little rally based on the economic numbers, but it didn’t get very far,” said Tom Benfer, a commercial trader on the foreign exchange desk at the Bank of Montreal here. “Overall, the market is still bearish on the dollar even with these fundamentally constructive numbers.”

Trading was very active right after the reports came out and then quieted down for the rest of the day, analysts said.