Gold futures tumbled on Friday to settled below $1,170 an ounce after stronger than expected jobs data sent the US dollar higher.Dollar gained on the back of jobs data which showed that the US unemployment rate fell in November to 10 percent.

Gold for February delivery tumbled $78.80 to $1,169.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange from a record high of $1,226.56.This was biggest one day percentage decline since December 1, 2008 but still gold remained up 33 percent year to date.

Analysts are expecting the U.S. Federal Reserve may be able to tighten monetary policy sooner than expected based on positive economic data which helped dollar rose, which has been sliding for most of the year.

March silver was down more than 3 percent down 60.8 cents to $18.520 an ounce against $18.80 late Thursday in New York.Platinum was down 2.95 percent $44 to $1,448.70,while palladium was down 1.94 percent at $372.50.