Gold futures gained ground Friday, as investors bid up the precious metal and other safety plays while U.S. stock futures sold off.
A regulatory change in China and an outage for Bloomberg terminals were getting blamed for the move away from stocks and other riskier assets.
Gold for June delivery was last up $3.60, or 0.3%, to $1,201.60 U.S. an ounce mid-morning Friday, cutting the contract’s weekly drop to about 0.2%.
Meanwhile, May silver rose one cent, or 0.1%, to $16.30 U.S. an ounce, as the contract eyed a weekly decline of 0.5%.
Greek tension also was contributing to risk-off sentiment, with the International Monetary Fund warning Greece against delaying payments to the fund.
On Thursday, gold futures settled lower, but held their ground near the key $1,200-U.S.-an-ounce level, finding some support from weakness in the U.S. dollar as investors mulled the latest batch of U.S. economic data and developments tied to debt woes in Greece.
