Bigger percentage losses for silver, copper, platinum and palladium
By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Gold futures traded little changed Friday, as traders digested an upbeat forecast on gold prices and as a softer dollar helped underpin the precious metal.
Gold for December delivery GCZ2 -0.04% moved fractionally lower, off 70 cents to $1,769.80 an ounce. A weaker dollar sent gold prices 0.3% higher on Thursday.
On Friday, the yellow metal traded sideways as support from a weaker dollar was largely offset by a lack of buying sentiment.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.26% slipped to 79.58 from 79.781 in late North America trading on Thursday. Weakness in the greenback is normally supportive for gold prices, as it makes the metal less expensive for holders of other currencies.
“For days now the gold price has been hovering in a narrow trading range around the $1,770 per troy ounce mark. It clearly lacks the necessary impetus to make further gains just now, the debt crisis in the euro zone having not escalated any further and the supply risks in South Africa already being largely priced in,” analysts at Commerzbank said in a note.
They added that there is “growing risk of short-term oriented financial investors starting to take profits, which would put prices under pressure.”
Separately, Credit Suisse raised its gold and silver forecasts for 2013 and 2014, citing the potential for more quantitative easing in the U.S. as well as physical demand in China and India. The investment bank upped its 2013 price forecast for gold by 7%, to $1,840 an ounce, while it now expects silver to reach $33.10 an ounce, up from $29.20 previously.
Also Friday, silver for December delivery SIZ2 -0.48% slipped 0.4% to $33.95 an ounce.
December copper HGZ2 -0.59% fell 0.7% to $3.73 a pound, while palladium for the same month PAZ2 -0.14% gave up 0.5% to $648 an ounce and January platinum PLF3 -0.67% dropped 0.6% to $1,679.50 an ounce.
Sara Sjolin is a MarketWatch reporter, based in London.
