COMEX gold futures rally after gloomy US jobs data

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - U.S. gold futures rallied up from negative territory when the August U.S. employment report came in weaker than forecast and pressured the dollar, traders said.

December gold GCZ8 charged up to $818.80 an ounce from a low of $794.80 after an 84,000 decline in non-farm payrolls, worse than the 75,000 drop forecast and following the 60,000-job loss in July, was reported for August.

Gold futures steadied around $12.80 higher at $816.0 at 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. (Reporting by Carole Vaporean; Editing by John Picinich)