Gold News & Info

Source: Marketwatch.com

Washington— Strength in the U.S. dollar brought fresh pressure to bear on metals prices Friday, ending a spirited week of tug of war between bears and bulls in the futures pits.

In equities, the weakness in metals brought on modest losses for indexes tracking mining stocks.

With little in the way of economic data for the metals market to play off of, the trading tone on New York Mercantile Exchange was largely dull as sellers prevailed ahead of the weekend.

Toward the close of trading, traders fixed on remarks by Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan on China's moves toward a revaluation of its currency and what this would mean for the U.S. trade deficit and domestic prices.

However, the move higher by the dollar ranked as the primary catalyst for metals trading.

Against this backdrop, convictions grew that gold will have a struggle on its hands to be able to mount a meaningful move to the upside.

Gold for July delivery fell $3.10 to close at $417.70 an ounce.

"A close below $418 will not look good on the charts," said James Moore of TheBullionDesk.com. He targeted short-term weakness in the precious metal down to the $410-to-$415 range.

Meanwhile, July silver gave up all of the gains made earlier this week, dropping 18.5 cents to close at $6.995 an ounce. The contract sank by 6.5 cents on Thursday.

Also ending lower, July platinum surrendered $4.90 to $862.50 an ounce, while June palladium gave up $1.05 to $187.85 an ounce.

However, July copper turned higher, closing at $1.375 a pound, up 1.2%.

For the week, gold skidded 0.7%, palladium tripped 0.7% lower and platinum lost 0.3%, but silver squeezed out a 0.2% gain and copper rallied 1.7%.

According to the latest inventories data as tracked by Nymex, copper stood at 25,982 short tons as of the close of business on Thursday, down 342 short tons from the prior day. Gold and silver inventories were unchanged, at nearly 6.17 million troy ounces and 105.32 million troy ounces, respectively.