Gold futures were little changed Friday, moving in a small range between $843.40 and $850.70 amid mixed performance in the U.S. dollar. In thin trading, gold for February delivery was last up 60 cents, or 0.1%, at $848.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the year, gold is up 1.3% so far. The dollar was lower against the euro but was trading higher against the British pound and the Japanese yen. The dollar index , which tracks the value of the greenback against its major rivals, was last up 0.1%. Gold prices and the dollar tend to move in the opposite direction. The nearby December contract, which expires Dec. 29, was also little changed, trading at $849.60 an ounce. Open interest, or the number of outstanding contracts for December delivery, stood at 369 as of Wednesday, or 36,900 ounces, according to Comex data. Gold inventories held by Comex for futures delivery stood at 2,832,883 ounces as of Wednesday, unchanged 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 Wednesday, 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 0.2% to $10.375 an ounce. January platinum gained 3.1% to $885.60 an ounce, and March palladium lost 1.2% to $172.75 an ounce. March copper added 1.5% to $1.2925 a pound.

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