Gold futures snapped a three-day losing streak on Friday but the precious metal’s upside was capped by a stronger dollar and uncertainty over the timing of a Federal Reserve rate hike.
Gold for June delivery on Comex rose $11, or 0.9%, to settle at $1,204.60 U.S. an ounce for a weekly gain of 0.3%. May silver rose 21 cents, or 1.3%, to $16.38 U.S. an ounce, falling 1.9% in the week.
The ICE dollar index, a measure of the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, is up 2% on the week, reflecting in part a 2.7% weekly drop by the euro versus the U.S. unit.
A stronger U.S. currency is typically seen as a negative for commodities priced in dollars, making them more expensive to users of other currencies. Analysts at Citibank, however, said gold has proved resilient to dollar strength since 2014. See: Gold bugs might have their day in 2016.
In other metals trade, July platinum rose $13.60, or 1.2%, to $1,170.60 U.S. an ounce, while June palladium gained $13.65, or 1.8%, to $776.05 U.S. an ounce.
May copper remained mostly unchanged at $2.73 U.S. a pound.
