By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Gold futures slipped in electronic trading Friday, handing back a small portion of sharp previous session gains as European concerns rattled markets.
Gold for June delivery GCM2 +0.20% lost $1.90, or 0.1%, to trade at $1,573.00 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading hours, putting the precious metal on track for a weekly loss of 0.7%.
The metal jumped 2.5% in Thursday’s North American session, finding some support around $1,550 an ounce after heavy selling this week. Read more on Thursday's relief rally.
Commodity and equity markets were weaker across the board in electronic trading, as fears of a run on Europe’s banks moved to Spain and hurt investor confidence worldwide.
Edward Meir, INTL FCStone strategist said many commodity complexes are “severely oversold, and nowhere is this more evident than in silver.”
“However, markets need a headline to tee off on, and so far, there has not been much in the way of encouraging news out of Europe that could provide the necessary short-covering trigger,” he said.
Against a backdrop of escalating Europe worry, the dollar extended recent strength. The dollar index DXY +0.07% , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six currencies, rose to 81.626, from 81.454 in late North American trading Thursday.
A stronger greenback can pressure dollar-priced commodities including metals as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies.
Around the broader metals suite, July silver SIN2 +0.59% lost 27 cents, or 0.1%, to $27.95 an ounce. Copper for the same month’s delivery HGN2 +0.12% dropped 2 cents, or 0.5%, to $3.46 per pound.
July platinum PLN2 +0.30% , fell $5.10, or 0.4%, to $1,448.30 an ounce. Palladium for June delivery PAM2 -0.0083% declined $7.35, or 1.2%, to $598.50 an ounce.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
