Gold Ends Week 4.3% Down, Silver Drops 7.4% as US Price & Retail Data Beat the Street

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold steadily rose in Asia and London on Friday to see a gain of $17.15 an ounce at $1142.05 a little after 07:00 EST.

The Gold Price then fell back for most of the morning in New York, dropping as low as $1109.15 per ounce – a new three-week low – just before noon. Gold rallied back higher in the last couple of hours of trade, but still ended with a loss of 0.6% for the session.

The Gold Price in Euros held near €765 an ounce.

Platinum gained $11.50 on Friday to $1425 an ounce, and copper rose a few cents to about $3.11. But oil fell for an eighth straight session to under $70 a barrel as the US Dollar index rose to a 2-month high on the better than expected Retail Sales data.

Retail Sales rose almost twice as fast as Wall Street analysts predicted for November. US Import Prices rose 1.7% month-on-month, but added only 0.4% excluding oil. Export prices also rose sharply, adding 0.8% from Oct.'s rise of 0.2%.

The Michigan Sentiment Index jumped to 73.4, beating analyst forecasts of 68.8.

Business Inventories grew 0.2% in Oct., capping a long run of inventory draw down.

The data sent Treasuries lower and the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P mostly higher on the day. Silver climbed more than 2% before also falling back early in New York, dropping as low as $16.89 by noon. It then rallied into the close and ended with a loss of 0.5%.

On the week, the Gold Price in Dollars lost 4.4%, silver dropped 7.4%, as did crude oil, and Gold Mining stocks lost almost 6%. The S&P 500 index of US stocks was barely changed.

Next week’s US economic highlights include Producer Prices, Empire Manufacturing, Treasury and US equity TIC Flows, Capacity Utilization, and Industrial Production on Tuesday; Consumer Prices, Building Permits, Housing Starts, and the Fed rate Decision on Wednesday; and Initial Jobless Claims, Leading Economic Indicators, and the Philadelphia Fed on Thursday.

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