By Gold futures settled lower on Friday, heading for a loss on the week as prices reversed part of a two-session rebound on the back of risk-off sentiment that helped lift the price of the precious metal briefly north of $1,850 per ounce.
Price action
August gold
GCQ22,
-0.56%
GC00,
-0.56%
declined by $9.30, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,840.60 an ounce. Based on the most-active contract, prices finished 1.9% lower for the week.
Silver for July delivery
SIN22,
-1.42%
SI00,
-1.42%
fell 30 cents, or 1.4%, to $21.587 an ounce, with prices down 1.6% for the week.
July platinum futures
PLN22,
-2.25%
lost $20.90, or 2.2%, at $930.20 per ounce, posting a weekly loss of 4.2%.
September palladium
PAU22,
-3.43%
declined by $67.80, or 3.6%, at $1,798.70 an ounce, losing 5.7% for the week.
July copper
HGN22,
-2.23%
settled at $4.0135 a pound, down 9 cents, or 2.3%, for the session. It fell 6.5% for the week.
Here’s what analysts are saying
The markets saw a busy week of activity from central banks around the world, including the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank, which all hiked their benchmark interest rates this week. The Bank of Japan stood firm on its ultra-loose monetary policy prescription.
“It has been a rollercoaster week for [gold] thanks to a volatile dollar and swinging Treasury yields,” Lukman Otunuga, manager, market analsysis at FXTM, told MarketWatch. Gold saw a weekly drop “as investors evaluate the impacts of rising interest rates on global growth.”
“With the Fed raising interest rates by 75 basis points this week, this could limit gold’s upside gains in the near term,” he said. “However, mounting fears of a U.S. recession amid tighter monetary policy could revive appetite for safe-haven gold — essentially limiting downside losses.”
For now, from a technical standpoint, prices are “back within a messy range with support around $1,800 and resistance at $1,880,” said Otunuga. “Gold could be seeking a fresh directional catalyst to breakout of the current range.”
Economic data from the Federal Reserve released Friday showed that U.S. industrial production rose 0.2% in May, up a fifth straight month. On Thursday, a handful of disappointing reports on the number of Americans buying homes and the number applying for unemployment benefits inspired a brief surge in gold prices.
Other markets
U.S. benchmark stock indexes climbed in Friday dealings, with the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.66%
up 0.5% and Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+1.83%
up more than 1.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.39%
edged higher by 0.3%. U.S. stocks are still trading near their lowest levels since December 2020.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
+0.98%
was up nearly 1%, headed for a weekly rise of around 0.5%.
