Gold futures rose slightly Wednesday in the thinly-traded pre-holiday session amid mixed trading in the U.S. dollar. Gold for February delivery was last up $6.70, or 0.8%, at $844.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The dollar remained slightly lower against the euro on Wednesday after reports on joblessness and consumer spending pointed to further weakness in the U.S. economy. But the dollar index , which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, rose 0.2%. See Currencies. Gold prices and the dollar tend to move in the opposite direction. The nearby December contract, which expires Dec. 29, also moved high Wednesday. Open interest, or the number of outstanding contracts for December delivery, stood at 413 as of Tuesday, or 41,300 ounces, according to Comex data. Gold inventories held by Comex for futures delivery stood at 2,832,883ounces as of Tuesday, down 100 ounces from a day ago, according to the latest data from the exchange. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the largest exchange-traded gold fund, stood at 775.33 tons Tuesday, unchanged from a day ago and up 20 tons from a month ago, according to the latest data from the fund. In other metals trading, March silver futures rose 1.2% to $10.38 an ounce. January platinum gained 1.5% to $859.10 an ounce, and March palladium rose slightly to $174.85 an ounce. March copper added 0.7% to $1.2895 a pound.

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