Gold turns higher on falling dollar

Gold prices rose on Friday, as the US dollar fell against most currencies, after the release of the monthly jobs report.

The US Department of Labor reported that the economy has added 199K new jobs in December, less than forecasts of 430K jobs, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 4.2%.

The 10-year US Treasury bond yield rose to 1.75%, which weighs down on the stock, commodity and metal markets.

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said that Fed could raise interest rates as soon as March, which is sooner than expected.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.6% to 95.7 points as of 19:59 GMT, after hitting a high of 96.3 points and a low of 95.7 points.

Gold spot prices rose 0.4% to $1,796.5 an ounce, as of 20:00 GMT.