Precious metals continue to shed glaze

Prices register big weekly losses Precious metal futures fell on Friday, 11 May 2012 at Comex with recent strength in the U.S. dollar dragging prices lower. Gold prices finished off the day's low, however, as data showing that U.S. consumer sentiment hit its highest level in more than 4 years prompted the dollar to lose some of its safe-haven appeal and trade off session highs. Gold for June delivery shed $11.50, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,584 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, marking its lowest settlement level of the year. Prices had dropped as much as $23.50 to touch a low of $1,572 an ounce earlier Friday. They lost 3.7% for the week, marking their second weekly loss. Silver for July delivery fell 29 cents, or 1%, to end at $28.89 an ounce, after tapping a low of $28.42 on Friday. Prices fell 5.1% for the week. In the currency market on Friday, the Dollar Index, which weighs the strength of dollar against basket of six other currencies rose by almost 0.2%. Among data expected at Wall Street, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan-Thomson Reuters consumer sentiment index climbed more than expected, to 77.8 in May, up from 76.4 in April. That was the best reading since January 2008. In other economic news on Friday, the Labor Department said producer prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in April to mark the biggest decline since October. Excluding food and energy, core producer prices edged up by 0.2%. Data from China, meanwhile, served to dent commodities. Latest data showed that China's industrial output rose 9.3% in April. Market had expected industrial production to rise around 14%. If the EU debt crisis does escalate significantly, the gold market is expected to benefit significantly from safe-haven investment demand.