the mostactive gold futures contract settled higher on friday snapping its threeday losing streak after the july jobs report showed the us economy gained just 187000 jobs last month slightly below the dow jones estimate of 200000 and pointing to a stillsolid hiring in the labor market gold prices settled higher on friday reversing the previous three consecutive sessions of losses after the latest report from the bureau of labor statistics showed the us economy gained just 187000 jobs in july another indication that the labor market is slowly cooling off and perhaps a welcome sign as the financial markets are still debating whether the federal reserve will get interestrate hikes out of the way by the end of this year the unemployment rate meanwhile fell to 35 in july from 36 in the previous month the government said friday however wages a closely watched indicator of how much leverage workers are exerting in the labor market increased 04 in july stronger than the fed would like the increase over the past 12 months was unchanged at 44 see us adds 187000 jobs in july and points to hiring slowdown but wages still high below consensus job growth combined with higher average hourly earnings signals that more progress is needed to reduce the jobsworkers gap slow wage growth and ultimately lower inflation said candice tse global head of strategic advisory solutions at goldman sachs the fed has likely ended its most aggressive tightening campaign in generations with a reasonable path to a soft landing however there is still a wide range of possible outcomes with risks tilted towards additional hikes should inflation remain sticky though not her base case she said in emailed comments on friday the weakerthanexpected us jobs report pushed the us dollar and treasury yields lower offering some respite to the yellow metal which slid for three straight sessions after fitch ratings decision to cut the us governments credit rating tumbled the financial markets the ice us dollar index dxy a closely watched gauge of the dollars value against other major currencies dropped by 06 at 10193 on friday afternoon treasury yields pulled back from near 10month highs with the yield on the 10year treasury note bxtmubmusd10y off 12 basis points at 4068 while the yield on the 30year treasury bond bxtmubmusd30y declined by 9 basis points at 4216 on friday according to factset data this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal