By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Gold improved its gains in electronic trade Friday, with a pullback for the dollar helping fuel the advance.
Gold for August delivery GCQ3 +0.41% gained $5.50, or 0.4%, to $1,289.70 an ounce, after settling $6.70 higher in Thursday’s trade on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Likewise, September silver SIU3 +0.08% rose 10 cents, or 0.5%, to $19.49, more than erasing its Thursday loss of 3 cents.
The advance came as the U.S. dollar pared some of its Thursday gains, with the ICE dollar index DXY -0.17% sitting at 82.618 early Friday, down from 82.783 late the previous day.
Since gold futures, like those of many commodities, are usually denominated in dollars, a drop in the U.S. unit makes gold less expensive to holders of other currencies, encouraging buying.
Gold has also gained recently on congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said the U.S. central bank had no set timetable for slowing its stimulus.
The Fed’s monetary easing is generally seen as supportive of gold.
In other metals actions, September copper HGU3 -0.35% rose 2 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.15 a pound, while October platinum PLV3 +0.66% made a solid $12.70 rise — 0.9% — to $1,427.50 an ounce.
September palladium PAU3 -0.13% gave up 45 cents, or about 0.1%, to trade at $747.05 an ounce.
