Gold & Silver Little Changed for the Week as Stocks, Dollar Fall on $9bn AIG Loss & German-Greek Rumor

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold traded modestly higher in Asia and London on Friday, jumping in mid-morning New York trade before it fell back near unchanged.

Gold Prices then surged higher again in the last half hour of trade and ended just off their last-minute high of $1118.63 with a gain of 1.0% on the day, down 0.3% for the week.

Silver followed a similar pattern and ended near its late session high of $16.51 with a gain of 2.4% for the session, slightly above from the previous Friday's finish.

Platinum gained $14.50 to $1538.50, and copper gained over 7 cents to about $3.27.

Gold Mining and silver equities traded slightly higher to cut their weekly losses to 1.8% on average.

Crude oil meanwhile climbed back near $80 a barrel after stronger than expected GDP data from the United States raised demand expectations.

The US Dollar index fell markedly as the Euro rose on reports that Germany may buy Greece's debt to help end the fiscal crisis.

Treasury bonds rose, however, as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P struggled to find gains after other economic data showed US home sales and the Michigan Sentiment Index coming in below analyst forecasts, plus news that insurance giant AIG lost nearly $9 billion in the fourth quarter.

The Gold Price in Euros meantime climbed to €821 an ounce, some €9 below Monday morning's new all-time record high.

Next week's US economic highlights include Personal Income and Spending, PCE Prices, Construction Spending, and the ISM Index on Monday, ADP Employment, ISM Services, and the fed’s Beige Book on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, Productivity, Unit Labor Costs, Factory Orders, and Pending Home Sales on Thursday, and February jobs data and Consumer Credit on Friday.

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