Gold futures settled lower Friday amid broad-based liquidation on Wall Street after reports surfaced that Standard & Poor’s plans to downgrade several European nations’ credit ratings. Risk aversion fueled safe-haven buying in the U.S. dollar, which pressured the yellow metal.
COMEX gold for February delivery – the most actively-traded contract – closed with a loss of $16.90, or 1.0%, at $1,630.80 per ounce. The yellow metal fell to an intra-day low of $1,625.70 this morning, subsequently bounced back above $1,640, but later extended its losses.
Despite Friday’s sell-off, however, gold futures posted a weekly gain of $12.80, or 0.9% – marking its first stretch of back-to-back gains since October 31-November 11, 2011. On a year-to-date basis, the yellow metal is now higher by 4.1%, following a 10.4% slide in December.
Silver futures followed gold lower on Friday, with the February 2012 contract trading down by $0.62, or 2.1%, at $29.50 per ounce this afternoon. For the week, however, silver posted a gain of $0.77, or 2.7% – representing its first consecutively weekly advances since October 3-14 of last year.
Source; http://www.goldalert.com/2012/01/gold-posts-consecutive-weekly-gains-first-time-since-early-november/
No comments:
Post a Comment