Bullions rise on Friday

Prices register massive quarterly drop Bullion metals ended higher on Friday, 28 June 2013. Gold for August delivery erased an early dip below $1,200 an ounce Friday to end floor trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at $1,223.70 an ounce, up $12.10, or 1%. September silver rose 92 cents to close at $19.47 an ounce on Friday, but saw a nearly 32% quarterly fall. For the quarter, however, gold dropped more than 23% on fears that a stronger U.S. economy would continue to push up government bond yields and the U.S. dollar, tarnishing the attractiveness of the precious metal. On Friday, a disappointing Chicago PMI report for June (51.6 actual, 55.5 consensus, 58.7 prior) contributed to the early weakness among US stocks, but stocks were able to find support shortly thereafter. The session lows coincided with the release of a better-than-expected final University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (84.1 final, 82.7 consensus, 82.7 preliminary). Speculation that the end of Federal Reserve stimulus would arrive sooner rather than later hit gold futures hard this month, as so-called quantitative easing has been credited for supporting a rally in gold in recent years.