Gold News & Info

Source: Marketwatch.com

Washington— Metals futures turned mixed Friday, with gold prices managing a modest rebound.

The turnaround put gold for April delivery at $439.40 an ounce in midday dealings on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 30 cents, after retreating as low as $436.10. The benchmark contract had dropped $5.10 in Thursday's action and ended last week at $446.80.

Gold's snapback came even as the U.S. dollar traded higher against the other major global currencies. See Currencies.

Metals traders started to position themselves ahead of the March 22 meeting of the Federal Reserve called to review U.S. monetary policy.

Kevin Kerr has been a bull on gold's prospects and said he's unperturbed by this week's pullback in the precious metal.

"Gold may correct further from here, but this market seems steady and healthy as gold works its way higher," said the Kerr Trading International strategist.

Also on Nymex, May copper reversed higher, adding 0.75 cent at $1.512 a pound. April platinum erased early weakness, adding 50 cents to $880 an ounce, while June palladium gained $1.35 to $204 an ounce.

Silver alone remained lower, with the May contract off 2.2 cents to $7.385 an ounce.

According to the latest inventories data compiled by Nymex, silver inventories reached nearly 101.9 million troy ounces as of the close of business Thursday, up 199,415 troy ounces from the previous day. Gold inventories were unchanged more than 5.915 million troy ounces, while copper held steady at 45,395 short tons.

On the equities side, the indexes tracking mining stocks remained lower.

The Philadelphia Gold/Silver Index stood at 100.95 points, down 0.6 percent, while the CBOE Gold Index dropped nearly 1 percent to 89.01 and the Amex Gold Bugs Index sank 0.8 percent to 218.29.