Gold is tanking

Gold is tanking.

Near 9:45 am ET on Friday, gold was trading at $1242.60 an ounce, down as much as 1.6%.

The plunge comes after a solid employment report showed the US economy beat expectations to add 253,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate rose to 5.7%.

The strong jobs report signals that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates as soon as June - earlier than the market expects. Capital Economics' Paul Ashworth wrote in a note Friday that, "the Fed can't wait much longer in that environment, particularly not when interest rates are starting at near-zero."

Today's drop brought gold to its weakest level since mid-January. Here's a chart showing gold's tumble this morning: