Gold drifted lower Friday, pressured by strength in the U.S. dollar, but prices held just above the key $1,300-an-ounce level, with futures poised to end the week higher.
June gold GCM8, -0.11% fell by $2.20, or 0.2%, to $1,302.20 an ounce, but trading roughly 0.9% higher for the week. It settled at $1,304.40 on Thursday, the highest finish since May 14, after President Donald Trump announced the cancellation of the U.S. meeting with North Korea.
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Investors will keep an eye on geopolitical headlines, which can be gold-supportive. Trump called off a June 12 summit with North Korea but a senior official from Pyongyang said its leader Kim Jong Un is still willing to meet. U.S. stocks briefly tumbled Thursday on news that Trump had pulled out, but traders seemed to be finding some reassurance in North Korea’s measured response, prompting mixed trading for stocks Friday.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.46% rose 0.5% to 94.21 after rising to its highest level since mid-December earlier this week. It trades about 0.6% higher for the week. The 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, -1.50% fell further below the closely watched 3% line.
A mixed reading within the details of a durable goods report Friday did little to counter a largely dovish set of Federal Reserve meeting minutes released earlier this week, which had already helped the precious metal rebound from the lowest levels of 2018. The final reading for consumer sentiment released Friday revealed a slight fall in May, but the index pointed to steady growth for the U.S. economy.
For gold, “a weekly close above $1,307, which is the 200-day moving average, is likely to trigger a rethink among funds holding the lowest net-long position in 10 months,” said Ole Hansen, commodities analyst at Saxo Bank.
Prices for the metal found some support this week as minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s May meeting didn’t indicate a more aggressive pace of interest-rate increases was in the offing. Central bank officials backed longstanding market expectations for an interest-rate hike next month. Prospects for higher interest rates are typically dollar-positive and a drag on gold.
Chairman Jerome Powell was set to appear on a panel on financial stability and central-bank transparency at a conference in Stockholm Friday. The presidents of the Chicago and Dallas Feds, Charles Evans and Rob Kaplan, were expected to speak on a panel at a Dallas Fed conference on technology and disruption at 11:45 a.m. Eastern.
In other trading, July silver SIN8, -0.82% slipped 0.9% to $16.535 an ounce, on track for a roughly 0.5% weekly gain.
“July silver futures bulls and bears are back on a level overall near-term technical playing field,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst with Kitco.com. “Silver bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $17.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at the May low of $16.07.”
July copper HGN8, -0.47% was trading at $3.079 a pound—up 0.5% for the week. July platinum PLN8, -1.39% fell 1.5% to $899.20 an ounce, poised for a weekly gain of 1.5%, while September palladium PAU8, +0.27% shed 0.3% to $963 an ounce, paring its weekly climb to about 0.6%.
Among exchange-traded funds, the SPDR Gold Shares GLD, -0.03% fell nearly 0.1%, with the iShares Silver Trust SLV, -0.71% down 1%, while the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF GDX, -1.02% shed 1.2%. All three ETFs traded higher for the week.