The gold price stabilized near $1,640 per ounce Wednesday night despite a better than expected report on the U.S. labor market

The gold price stabilized near $1,640 per ounce Wednesday night despite a better than expected report on the U.S. labor market. The price of gold moved down to $1,597 in overnight trading but rebounded early this morning as the U.S. dollar turned lower against a basket of foreign currencies. The ADP employment report revealed that 91,000 private sector jobs were added in September, above the 75,000 consensus estimate among economists.

While many investment banks have lowered their gold price targets in recent weeks, Credit Suisse did the opposite.

The firm lifted its average 2012 estimate from $1,540 to $1,850 per ounce, and forecasted that the yellow metal will rebound from last month’s weakness over the remainder of 2011.

“Given that many of the factors that have underpinned the rapid increase — most importantly, fears of a global meltdown — remain in place, we expect gold prices to continue to recover over the balance of 2011,” analyst Tom Kendall wrote in a note to clients.

Looking out over the next several years, however, Kendall was not as bullish. The Credit Suisse analyst predicted that gold prices will peak in the second half of 2012 and subsequently retreat – though not crash – in 2013. His 2013 and 2014 targets are $1,790 and $1,425 per ounce, respectively.