Gold Rallies But Ends Week 1.3% Down, Slips with Dollar, as S&P Jumps 10%

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold fell a few dollars to $918.95 just ahead of the New York opening on Friday, before it spiked to $938.30 an ounce, only to fall back as stocks surged once again..

For the day, Gold Bullion priced in Dollars ended with a gain of just 0.75%, slipping 1.3% for the week. The Gold Price in Euros rose to €718, losing 3.3% from the Friday before.

The S&P meantime closed the week 10.7% higher, its best week since November. Treasury bonds fell slightly as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose.

Oil ended lower on more indications over slowing demand and speculation that the Opec oil cartel may not cut production quotas at this weekend's meeting.

The US Dollar index fell as the Euro continued to find found continued strength from Thursday’s policy shift to open devaluation by the Swiss National Bank.

Platinum gained $17 to $1060.50, and copper gained roughly 4 cents to about $1.66. Silver prices fell to $12.92 before jumping as high as $13.29, but silver also fell back off, finally closing 1.1% lower from the Friday before.

Gold Mining and silver equities meandered mostly slightly higher and ended with a little over 1% gains.

On the data front, US import prices showed a lighter fall for Feb. than expected, down 0.2% from Jan.'s 1.2% drop. Excluding agricultural goods, import prices rose 0.1% month-on-month.

The US Trade Deficit meantime contracted to $36 billion from Jan.'s $40bn gap.

Next week’s economic highlights include Empire Manufacturing, Net Long-Term TIC Flows, Capacity Utilization, and Industrial Production on Monday, Building Permits, Housing Starts, and PPI on Tuesday, CPI, the Current Account Balance, and a FOMC Rate Decision on Wednesday, and Initial Jobless Claims, Leading Economic Indicators, and the Philadelphia Fed survey on Thursday.