Weekly Round-Up: Softer Dollar Spurs Rise for Gold

Gold saw an increase of 0.9 percent on Friday, reaching $1,233.55 an ounce, according to Reuters; meanwhile, US gold futures for April delivery crept up by $13 to hit $1,233.70. Those rises came as the US dollar softened, preventing gold from hitting its third week of losses.

During the previous session, the yellow metal dropped to a five-week low, settling at $1,216.45. The loss followed expectations of higher US interest rates and optimism about a potential deal between Greece and its creditors.

“We are in a holding pattern between $1,150 and $1,300 because there isn’t enough clarity around when the Fed is going to be hiking interest rates and what is going to be happening with Greece,” Hamza Khan, ING Bank senior strategist, told Reuters. “So until we see what is going to happen in the long term, gold is likely to remain in this range.”

For its part, silver rose by 2.9 percent, reaching $17.29 an ounce.

The softening of the dollar also caused copper to dip 0.4 percent, hitting $5,715 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange, another Reuters article states. The metal briefly hit a three-week intraday high of $5,793,50 before China slowed its trading activity just before the long weekend. Next week is China’s Lunar New Year holiday, with markets closed until February 18.

“It is difficult to get fundamental views (on copper) given the fact that the markets in China are going to be closed,” Eugen Weinberg, head of commodity research at Commerzbank (ETR:CBK), told the news outlet. “The outlook for demand in China (after the Lunar new year) is still uncertain.”

Meanwhile, copper gained 0.61 percent on the COMEX, reaching $2.618 per pound, as per Investing.com

Finally, the softer US dollar also stimulated buying, which kept Brent crude oil prices above $60, according to International Business Times. Brent crude rose over 3 percent for the week, trading Friday at $60.12 a barrel.