Mumbai, Dec. 17 -- COMEX gold prices are staying well supported near record high levels on Wednesday morning in Asia after a small decline yesterday following US data that showed stronger than expected job growth in November. The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 64,000 jobs in November after tumbling by 105,000 jobs in October. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent in November from 4.4 percent in September. The unemployment rate was expected to tick up to 4.5 percent. Currently, the counter is quoting at $4352.80 an ounce, up almost half a percent on the day.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Capital Market....