Gold at Six-Month High

Hope for a third round of stimulus spending

Gold climbed more than 2% Friday as a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report bolstered investor hopes that the Federal Reserve would soon prop up the economy with a third round of stimulus.

The most actively traded contract, for December delivery, rose $34.90, or 2.1%, to settle at $1,740.50 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was the highest settlement price since Feb. 28, when gold settled at $1,788.40 a troy ounce.

U.S. employers added fewer jobs in August than economists had forecast, bolstering the view that the Fed would announce new easy money measures following the central bank's policy setting meeting next Thursday.

"The jobs data is so dire that the window is wide open for the Fed to take action," said Ira Epstein, director of the Ira Epstein division at the Linn Group.