Gold Futures Settle Lower For The Session, Gain More Than 2% In Week

Gold futures settled lower on Friday as fairly strong stock markets and a steady dollar amid continued optimism about economic recovery dimmed the demand for the safe-haven commodity.

The dollar index advanced to 90.15 about an hour past noon, and despite paring some gains subsequently, remained firm at 90.05 a little while ago, gaining nearly 0.3%.

Gold futures for June ended lower by $5.20 or about 0.3% at $1,876.70 an ounce, coming off from the day’s high of $1,890.30. Gold futures gained about 2.1% in the week.

Silver futures for July closed down by $0.581 at $27.486 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $4.4810 per pound, down $0.0870 from the previous close.

Euro zone PMIs as well as U.K. retail sales figures released earlier in the day pointed to an economic recovery in the Europe.

According to flash survey data from IHS Markit, the euro area private sector activity grew the most in more than three years in May as economies continued to open up from virus restrictions. The composite output index rose to 56.9 from 53.8 in the previous month. The score was expected to climb moderately to 55.1.

U.K. retail sales expanded 9.2% month-on-month in April, faster than the 5.1% increase in March and the economists’ forecast of +4.5%. This was the biggest increase since June 2020, when sales were up 13.9%.

In U.S. economic news today, a report released by the National Association of Realtors showed an unexpected decrease in existing home sales in the month of April.

NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 2.7% to an annual rate of 5.85 million in April after plunging by 3.7% to a rate of 6.01 million in March. The slump surprised economists, who had expected existing home sales to surge up by 2%.

Existing home sales declined for the third straight month but were still up by 33.9% compared to the same month a year ago.

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