Gold prices dropped again on Friday as the U.S. dollar rebounded versus major rivals. December gold finished at $837.40, down $23.20 for the session. The dollar saw strength on Friday, reducing gold's hedge appeal. The buck rallied to a three-day high of 1.3907 against the euro, moving off the 2 1/2 month low of 1.4718. The buck was little-changed against the yen near 89.50 after pulling away from a 13-year low of 87.11 earlier in the week. The Bank of Japan's Board of Governors voted to trim the overnight call rate by 20 basis points to 0.10 percent, the BOJ said on Friday. Traders reacted to news that the Bush administration plans to use funds from the financial rescue package to bail out the struggling U.S. automakers. Under the terms of the loans, which could provide a total of $17.4 billion in funding to the automakers, the companies will be required to show that the loans are helping them become viable businesses. In other commodity trading, January crude oil dropped sharply on its final day as the front month contracyt. Light sweet crude for January fell to $33.87, down $2.35 for the day. However, the more-actively traded February contract, which takes over as the front-month contract, added 69 cents to finish at $42.36 a barrel. Despite the decline, gold closed the week up $17.20. This marks the sixth time in seven weeks that gold has finished higher. Gold turned lower on Thursday and retreated away from a recently-visited two-month high. February gold fell $7.90 to close the session at $860.60 an ounce. Gold had reached as high as $879.60 before turning lower.

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