Prices trade at best in a week
By Claudia Assis and Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures rose on Friday, as encouraging business-climate data from Germany boosted the euro and added pressure on the dollar, making investing in the metal more appealing.
Gold futures for December delivery GCZ2 +1.18% added $5.20, or 0.3%, to $1,733.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices hovered at their highest level in a week.
Floor trading was closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, and most markets, including gold, are on an abbreviated session on Friday.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.51% , which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, fell 0.4% to 80.578, according to FactSet.
A weaker dollar is beneficial to gold and other dollar-denominated commodities as it makes them less expensive to holders of other currencies.
The pressure on the dollar was partly due to a rise in the euro EURUSD +0.62% to $1.2905, after the Munich-based Ifo Institute said its business-climate index rose to 101.4 in November from 100 in October, topping analysts’ expectations. See: German Ifo index beats forecasts, rallying euro
Unrest at gold mines in South Africa further buoyed gold prices. Clashes between union members outside a gold mine owned by Harmony Gold Mining Co. HMY +2.16% have reportedly resulted in two deaths, stoking fears of production outages. Earlier this year, violent strikes at Lonmin PLC’s UK:LMI -3.04% Marikana platinum mine in South Africa also claimed lives.
“Further production outages would likely have a supporting effect on the gold price, which should generally be able to profit from the current uncertainties,” analysts at Commerzbank said in a note.
“For instance, the [European Union] budgetary summit that continues today is expected once more to reveal the disagreement that prevails among the European governments,” they said.
Elsewhere in the metals complex, silver for December delivery SIZ2 +1.45% rose 10 cents, or 0.1%, to $33.45 an ounce. Palladium for the same month PAZ2 +2.19% picked up $5.50, or 0.9%, to $657.10 an ounce.
January platinum PLF3 +1.33% turned higher, up $9.60, or 0.1%, to $1,593.50 an ounce, while copper for December delivery HGZ2 +0.77% also turned higher, up 1 cent to $3.51 a pound.
