Gold rose slightly on Friday as investors weighed the economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak and as financial markets stabilized a bit after a rout, but the bullion was still headed for its worst week in more than three years.
The autocatalyst metal known as palladium also rose as much as 8%, after having plunged nearly 28% on Thursday in a global selloff. It, however, was on track to record its biggest weekly fall ever.
Spot gold was up 0.8% to $1,588.83 per ounce Friday morning EDT, having fallen more than 1% earlier. For the week, the precious metal is down 5.1% - the most since November 2016 - including Thursday’s 4.5% slide.
U.S. gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,589.20.
Countries and central banks have ramped up measures to cushion their economies from the pandemic, which has infected over 127,000 people worldwide.
The U.S. Federal Reserve provided massive liquidity injection on Thursday, having slashed it benchmark interest rate last week.
Palladium rose 7.2% to $1,962.97 U.S. per ounce, following a steep fall in the previous session, but was headed for a weekly decline of about 24%.
Platinum gained 4.1% to $794.28 U.S., but was down 11.5% for the week - the steepest dip since 2010.
Silver was the only exception, falling 1.1% to $15.65 U.S. per ounce, having earlier dipped up to 3.3%.
