Gold gains 0.5%, oil adds 0.2%

Singapore (Feb 6)  Gold futures settled higher, finding support as U.S. equities traded mostly lower following a weaker-than-expected report on private-sector employment.

Gold for April delivery increased 0.5 percent to finish at $1,256.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Last month the private sector added 175,000 jobs—the lowest result in five months—down from 227,000 in December, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported today.

In other metals, March silver gained 2 percent to $19.805 an ounce.

April platinum inched up 0.4 percent to $1,379.30 an ounce, while March palladium added 1 percent to $707.10 an ounce. High-grade copper surrendered less than a half cent to $3.19 a pound.

In energy markets, oil futures finished higher for second-straight session as U.S. data showed a rise in last week's crude supplies that was smaller than expected.

March crude closed up 0.2 percent at $97.38 a barrel.

Crude supplies rose 440,000 barrels to 358.1 million, the Energy Information Administration said. Economists were looking for a 2.55 million-barrel increase according to Bloomberg.

Elsewhere in energy, natural-gas futures dropped 6 percent, with volatility high ahead of this week's U.S. government update on supplies of the heating fuel.

March natural gas gave back 6.4 percent to finish at $5.03 per million British thermal units.

(Source:  StandardPoors)