Precious metals turn paler

Prices manage to register weekly gains

Precious metal prices ended lower on Friday, 23 October, 2009. Prices fell due to the rebounding dollar.

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 $1,056.4, lower by $2.2 (0.2%) an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week gold ended higher by 0.5%. Last week, gold had registered record highs quite a few times reaching an all time high of $1071. Year to date, gold prices are higher by 19.6%.

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, December Comex silver futures ended higher 17.8 cents (1%) at $17.723 an ounce. For the week, silver ended higher by 1.7%.

Silver ended 11.8% higher for September, 2009. Year to date, silver has climbed 59.9% this year. For 2008, silver had lost 24%.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar index, which calculates the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies rose by almost 0.4%. Earlier during the week, it had dropped to fourteen month lows.

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