Gold Hits Record Weekly Close vs. Dollar, Fresh Peaks vs. Euro, as Stocks Sink with Oil

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold priced in Dollars fell as low as $1192.52 in late morning New York trade on Friday, before it jumped as high as $1212.93 by early afternoon and ended with a gain of 1.0% on the day.

US stocks fell hard once again, extending Thursday's plunge to finish 6.4% lower on the S&P and almost 8.0% down on the Nasdaq.

The US Dollar index and treasuries fell on profit taking after pretty remarkable gains earlier in the week.

For the week, Gold priced in Dollars added 2.5%, finishing a record-high weekly close. The Gold Price in Euros rose to a new all-time high above €962 an ounce.

Crude oil dropped to $75 per barrel, down 12.8% from the previous week's finish.

Silver fell as low as $17.445 in late morning New York trade on Friday, before it jumped as high as $18.647 by early afternoon and ended with a gain of 5.0% on the day.

On the week, Silver lost 1.3%

Platinum lost $2 to $1655 on Friday, and copper rose a couple of cents to about $3.13.

Gold Mining and silver equities fell roughly 1.5% by midmorning and remained at about that level for the rest of the day, down almost 4.0% on the XAU index from the previous Friday's finish.

On the data front, the Bureau of Labor Studies' statistical new-business birth/death adjustment accounted for 188,000 of April's 290,000 additional US payrolls on Friday's Non-Farm Employment report. The unemployment rate rose to 9.9%.

The average work week was unchanged, as were hourly earnings. Consumer Credit for March showed a surprise $2bn rise vs. the $4bn drop expected.

Next week's US economic highlights include Wholesale Inventories on Tuesday, the Trade Balance and Treasury Budget on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims and Export and Import Prices on Thursday, and Retail Sales, Capacity Utilization, Industrial Production, Michigan Sentiment, and Business Inventories on Friday.

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