A stronger dollar tugs on precious metal; palladium’s the weakest
By Virginia Harrison and Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Gold futures declined Friday, matched by a pullback for the wider metals complex, as the dollar rose against major currencies and investors engaged in riskier trades.
Gold for February delivery GC2G -0.53% dropped $6.30, or 0.4%, to $1,641.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange during European trading hours.
The fall followed a 0.5% gain for the metal in the New York session, supported by a weaker dollar.
Friday, the dollar index DXY +0.37% , which tracks the U.S. unit against a basket of six major rivals, reversed Thursday’s losses and gained 0.3% to 80.97.
Futures for commodities traded in dollars tend to drop on a stronger greenback.
Further, analysts mentioned that general optimism has created a shift in the risk sentiment in the market, which has pulled investors towards riskier assets, such as oil and equities.
February futures of light, sweet crude CL2G -0.36% rose 0.1% to $99.22 a barrel, while the European stock index Stoxx 600 XX:SXXP +0.22% gained 0.5% to 250.89.
The wider metals complex tracked gold lower, with palladium posting the heaviest losses.
March palladium PA2H -1.91% dropped $11.45, or 1.8%, to $629.80 an ounce, while April platinum PL2J -0.97% fell $17.10, or 1.1%, to $1,483 an ounce.
Silver for March delivery SI2H -1.47% lost 28 cents, or 1%, to $29.84 an ounce. On Thursday, silver climbed to a four-week high but got pulled down Friday as some traders booked profits, said analysts at Commerzbank in a note.
“Because precious-metal ETFs have recorded hardly any inflows in recent days, the rise in prices is likely to have been driven among other things by speculative financial investors,” they said.
March copper HG2H -0.81% gave up 2 cents, or 0.5%, to $3.63 a pound.
