Gold Prices Settle Lower; Silver Prices Gain
Gold prices edged lower in trading on Friday as the U.S. dollar strengthened, however, the precious metal posted a gain for the week. Silver prices, meanwhile, edged higher on Friday.
Gold futures for delivery in February on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled $3.80 lower at $1,687 an ounce. For the week, gold futures gained 1.6%.
Gold slipped on Friday even as data released earlier in the day showed that the Chinese economy grew 7.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Speaking to Reuters, Howard Wen, analyst at HSBC, said that for gold we had some good physical demand from Asia, particularly in China following the better than expected GDP data. Wen expects physical buying to pick up ahead of the Chinese New Year on February 10. Wen, however, noted that there is some technical resistance for gold at $1,700 level, and the precious metal has to break above that level to move higher.
Silver prices edged higher on Friday, with March silver futures gaining 0.4% to $31.93 an ounce. Silver prices rose 5% for the week.
In late trading on Friday, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was up 0.46% to $30.81, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was up 0.86% to $48.28, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) was down 0.97% to $44.76.
Platinum and palladium fell sharply on Friday after rallying earlier in the week. Platinum rose sharply this week on concerns over supply. At last check on Friday, spot platinum was trading 1.5% lower at $1,665 an ounce, while spot palladium was trading more than 1% lower at around $714 an ounce.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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