By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com – Gold swung almost $40 on the week — appearing headed for $1,800 at one point before returning to mid $1,700 levels — as an underwhelming U.S. jobs report for September and ramping bond yields combined to create volatility that did little ultimately for the yellow metal’s prices.

U.S. gold futures’ most active contract, , settled Friday’s trade at $1,757.40 per ounce on New York’s Comex, down $1.80, or 0.1%.

The week was $1 cheaper.

“It was kind of a rollercoaster that was not,” said Phillip Streible, precious metals strategist for Blueline Futures in Chicago. “The disappointment over the September jobs report sent gold flying but the yield-spike brought it back down to earth.”

“Unless it goes back above $1,800, this action isn’t a market that’s promising on the upside,” he added.

December gold jumped almost $25 in Friday’s early session after the Labor Department reported just a non-farm payrolls growth of just 194,000 for last month versus the 235,000 for August and well below the forecast of 500,000.

Some believe that it might take longer for the Federal Reserve to implement the long-anticipated taper in its monthly pandemic-era stimulus of $120 million to the economy. It was an encouragement to gold, which is essentially a hedge against rising inflation.

Curiously, however, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment level fell to 4.8%, from 5.2% in August.

The drop in the jobless rate is important as it closes in on the Fed’s target of 4.0% for “full employment” — which central bank Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly used as a gauge for any monetary tightening to come.

In June, the yield of the jumped to 1.615%. Higher yields are usually bad for non-yielding ore.

“After digesting the (payrolls) report, (some) gold investors quickly realized that the taper announcement is still happening in November,” said Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA. “Pricing pressures are still elevated and that could still dictate higher interest rates next year.”