From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold fell as much as $15.30 per ounce to $932.40 by 10:00am in New York on Friday, but it then rallied back higher into the close and ended with a loss of just 0.8% for the session.

For the week, US-Dollar Gold Prices closed 3.0% higher.

Gold Mining and silver equities fell roughly 2% in the first half hour of trade, meantime, and remained near their lows for most of the rest of Friday, ending the week less than 0.9% up.

Oil jumped over 10% amid hopes that the $787 billion stimulus program – now due to pass through the US Congress – will help spur demand in the short term at least.

The US Dollar index fell slightly while Treasuries plummeted on worries about Washington being able to fund its massive plan.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P traded mostly lower and ended with modest losses as it became almost certain that the stimulus plan will pass, but uncertainty remains high as to whether or not it will be effective.

For the week, the Dow was 5.2% lower.

Silver meanwhile dropped 27¢ to $13.23 an ounce by Friday's New York opening, but it then surged higher in the last four and a half hours of trade and ended near its high of $13.71 with a gain of 1.0% for the session and 3.8% for the week.

The Gold Price in Euros slipped back to €728, down from Thursday's new spot-market high of €745 an ounce but a new all-time high for the weekly close. Gold this week also broke new record highs for US, Australian, Canadian, Indian and Swiss investors.

Platinum lost $9.50 to $1057, and copper rose slightly to about $1.54.

US markets will be closed on Monday in observance of President's Day. Next week's economic highlights include the Empire State Manufacturing Index and Net Long-Term TIC Flows on Tuesday, Building Permits, Housing Starts, Export and Import Prices, Capacity Utilization, and Industrial Production on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, PPI, Leading Economic Indicators, and the Philadelphia Fed on Thursday, and CPI on Friday.