By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (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 +0.28% added $5.70, or 0.3%, to 1,733.50 an ounce in electronic trading.
Floor trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
A weaker greenback helped push the contract higher on Friday, as the ICE dollar index DXY -0.24% fell 0.4% to 80.578, according to FactSet.
The pressure on the dollar was partly due to a rise in the euro EURUSD +0.39% 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 +0.77% have reportedly resulted in two deaths, stoking fears of production outages. Earlier this year, violent strikes at Lonmin PLC’s UK:LMI -2.41% 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 +0.24% rose 0.2% to $33.41 an ounce, while palladium for the same month PAZ2 +0.90% picked up 0.6% to $655.25 an ounce. January platinum PLF3 +0.32% slipped less than 0.1% to $1,583.50 an ounce, while copper for December delivery HGZ2 +0.30% fell 0.1% to $3.49 a pound.
Sara Sjolin is a MarketWatch reporter based in London. Follow her on Twitter @sarasjolin.
