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Gold Prices Settle Lower but Gain for the Week; Silver Prices Fall Sharply

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Gold prices settled lower in trading on Friday as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of Federal Reserve’s FOMC next week. However, the precious metal managed to post its third straight weekly gain. Silver prices, meanwhile, fell sharply in trading on Friday.

Gold prices hit a one-month high earlier this week as concerns over an early end to the Federal Reserve’s bond purchase program continued to ease. However, bullion investors are expected to remain cautious ahead of next week’s FOMC. Investors will be looking for further hints on when the central bank plans to start easing its $85 billion a month asset purchase program.

At last check, spot gold prices were down 1% to $1,321 an ounce. Gold futures for delivery in August on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange slipped $7.30 to settle at $1,321.70 an ounce. Gold prices have now gained over 8% in three weeks. However, the precious metal is still down some 20% for the year.

Apart from concerns over the longevity of the Fed’s bond purchase program, another factor that has put pressure on gold prices is outflows from gold-backed ETFs. According to Reuters, holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD), which is the world’s largest gold-backed ETF, fell 0.30% to 927.36 tons on Thursday.

Silver prices also fell sharply on Friday. At last check, silver was down 2% to $19.81 an ounce.

Platinum and palladium also edged lower on Friday, with spot platinum falling 1.8% to $1,420 an ounce and spot palladium falling 2.3% to $720 an ounce.








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edliston
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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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.

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