NEW YORK (AP) -- Gold prices kept falling Friday, briefly dropping below $775 an ounce as a stronger dollar helped diminish the metal's appeal as a safe haven against inflation. Silver also traded lower. Gold for December delivery fell $16.80 to settle at $787.50 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier falling as low as $772.20. December silver fell 30 cents to settle at $9.335 an ounce on the Nymex, while December copper rose 9.4 cents to settle at $2.1795 a pound. Gold has dropped over 8 percent in the past week, driven lower by a rebounding dollar and a wave of commodities liquidation by large institutional investors seeking to raise cash to cover recent losses on bad stock bets. Jon Nadler, analyst with Kitco Bullion Dealers in Montreal, said the "relentless" selling continued Friday, confounding some investors who had expected the ongoing financial turmoil to boost gold's safe-haven appeal. "These markets are still dealing on the basis of little more than raw emotion, and greed is conspicuously absent from the mix," Nadler said in a note. In energy markets, oil prices rebounded back above $71 a barrel on speculation that OPEC could slash output at an emergency meeting next week in an effort to stop crude's steep collapse. Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $2 to settle at $71.85 a barrel on the Nymex after earlier rising as high as $74.30. On Thursday, prices lost $4.69 to settle at $69.85 a barrel. Oil is now down $75 - or 51 percent - since catapulting to a record high of $147.27 on July 11 In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 4.61 cents to settle at $2.1569 a gallon, while gasoline futures rose 4.41 cents to settle at $1.661 a gallon. Meanwhile, agriculture futures traded higher on the Chicago Board of Trade. Wheat for December delivery rose 11 cents to settle at $5.6625 a bushel, while December corn gained 18.5 cents to settle at $4.030 a bushel. November soybeans rose 27 cents to settle at $8.940 a bushel.

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