By Claudia Assis and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures retreated Friday, part of a broader selloff across commodity markets after a sharper slowing in Chinese growth than expected.
Gold for June delivery GCM2 -0.77% lost $13.40, or 0.8%, to $1,667.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Comments from the Federal Reserve officials had helped spur expectations of more monetary stimulus and gave the yellow metal a boost in Thursday’s session, but optimism soured after data released Friday showed Chinese growth cooled to its slowest pace in 11 quarters. Thursday's gold session
Gross domestic product grew 8.1% in the January to March period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, missing analysts’ expectations of an 8.3% expansion. China's GDP
Friday capped a positive week for gold, however, which was looking at gains slightly above 2% in the five-day period.
Gold has been able to benefit from the hopes of more quantitative easing and has gained more than 1% in three separate days in the week.
Trading was “nervous” on Friday, with gold tracking lower equities and being pressured by the stronger dollar after the Chinese data, said Frank Lesh, a broker and analyst with FuturePath Trading in Chicago.
For the past several months, “gold has seemed to be a follower than a leader,” he said, exhibiting a very strong correlation with equities and dollar moves.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.67% , which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, rose to 79.875, from 79.269 in late North American trading on Thursday. The dollar and U.S. Treasurys have gotten much of the safe-haven flow that gold has failed to catch.
U.S. stocks opened lower and oil futures retreated. European stock also traded lower, led by losses for Spanish stocks after data showed bank borrowing in the country from the European Central Bank soared in March.
The wider metals complex had posted losses, with copper and silver leading the declines. China is a top consumer of copper and other base metals.
May copper HGK2 -2.67% lost 10 cents, or 2.8%, to $3.62 a pound.
Strategists at Barclays Capital kept their hopes up for copper despite the losses, saying they forecast strengthening global growth in the second half of the year, which will be bullish for copper prices. Second-quarter price dips are “buying opportunities,” they said.
Silver for May delivery SIK2 -2.78% lost 96 cents, or 2.9%, to $31.57 an ounce
July platinum PLN2 -0.93% dropped $15.10, or 0.9%, to $1,590.90 an ounce, while palladium for June delivery PAM2 -0.93% shed $5.50, or 0.8%, to $647.60 an ounce.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
