Gold futures continued to rebound Friday as the U.S. dollar lost steam and weakened in relation to other major currencies, leaving the metal open for a small advance after two weeks of losses.
Gold for June delivery GCM2 +1.03% rose $17, or 1.1%, to $1,591.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On the week, the metal gained 0.5%.
“The move up is largely a bounce back from the steep declines we had been seeing in the last two weeks,” said Rohit Savant, an analyst with CPM Group in New York.
Gold prices will likely face some resistance if they try to go beyond $1,630 an ounce, he added. Prices have largely moved lower since the beginning of the month, Savant said.
So far in May, gold has lost 4.3%.
Gold jumped 2.5% in Thursday’s North American session, finding some support around $1,550 an ounce in a reversal from heavy selling seen earlier this week. Read more on Thursday’s relief rally.
Investors remained skittish about investments considered riskier such as commodity and equity markets, as fears of a run on banks moved to Spain and hurt confidence worldwide.
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The fear has rendered many commodities futures “severely oversold, and nowhere is this more evident than in silver,” said Edward Meir, with INTL FCStone
July silver SIN2 +2.19% turned around as well, and ended the day up 70 cents, or 2.5%, to $28.72 an ounce. The gains were not enough to push silver higher on the week, however. The metal ended the five-day period off 0.6%.
Copper for the same month’s delivery HGN2 -1.31% turned lower as the day progressed, and settled down 1 cent, or 0.3%, to $3.47 per pound. Weekly, copper lost 4.9%.
Against a backdrop of escalating Europe worries, the dollar had extended a recent string of strength in early trading, but it let that advantage slip. The dollar index DXY -0.54% , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six currencies, declined to 81.278, off from 81.454 late Thursday. Read more in Currencies.
A stronger greenback can pressure dollar-priced commodities including metals as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies.
Also Friday, July platinum PLN2 +0.01% advanced $5.90, or 0.4%, to $1,459.30 an ounce, while June palladium PAM2 -0.31% declined $2.25, or 0.4%, to $603.60 an ounce.
On the week, platinum declined 0.8%, while palladium was flat.
Marketwatch – Virginia Harrison and Claudia Assis – May 18, 2012