Precious metals turn pale after long time

Prices register healthy weekly gains though

Precious metal prices ended little lower on Friday, 09 October, 2009. Prices fell on Friday after five consecutive sessions of rise. The prices slipped due to the rising dollar which crept up a little bit after staying low for almost the entire week. Nevertheless, precious metals registered good gains for the week.

Generally, a stronger dollar pressures demand for dollar-denominated commodities, such as crude oil and gold, which become more expensive for holders of other currencies and also vice versa.

On Friday, gold for December delivery ended at $1,048.6, lower by $7.7 (0.73%) an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. During the week, gold rose to a high of $1,060.4. For the week, gold ended higher by 4.3%. Year to date, gold prices are higher by 18.3%.

Gold ended September, 2009 higher by 5.9%. For the third quarter it ended higher by 8.7%. Before this, for the second quarter, gold ended higher by 0.5%. The metal had gained 4.3% in the first quarter of this year.

On Friday, Comex silver futures for December delivery fell 12 cents (0.7%) to $17.69 an ounce. For the week, silver ended higher by 8.9%.

Silver ended 11.8% higher for September, 2009. Year to date, silver has climbed 57.5% this year. For 2008, silver had lost 24%.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar firmed after Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke said the central bank will tighten monetary policy when the economic outlook shows sufficient improvement. The dollar index, which measures the strength of dollar against a basket of other currencies, rose by almost 0.3%.

In 2008, gold prices ended higher by 5.5%. The dollar index had gained 12% that year.