Gold suffered its worst week in six months last week after futures ended with a loss on Friday, helped by a strong week for the US dollar.
The greenback’s strength also hit the performance of other commodities such as oil, iron ore, copper, silver, and gold.
The falls left gold well under $US1,900 an ounce with little signs it will regain that level any time soon, despite rising fears about the pandemic, the wobbling global economy, and the uncertainty about the US elections and Donald Trump.
“Most of the sell-off in the gold price is primarily down to the strength in the dollar index that we have seen this week,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst, at AvaTrade, in a note on Friday in New York.
The US dollar ended the week about 1.8% higher against its six major peers, the biggest gain since April, FactSet data show.
The Aussie dollar fell to 70.31 US cents at the close on Friday from 72.89 the previous week and steeper fall from Monday’s 73.13 close. That’s a big fall of 3.5% for the five days.
Comex December gold fell $US10.60, or 0.6% on Friday, to settle at $1,866.30 an ounce, sending the metal to its lowest finish in two months.
Gold lost 4.9% over the week —the steepest fall for a most-active contract since the period ended March 13, according to FactSet.
Meanwhile, December silver lost 10 cents, or 0.4%, lower at $US23.093 an ounce on Friday, pushing it to its lowest settlement since late July.
That saw silver slump 14.9% over the week, its sharpest weekly drop since the week ended March 13.
Comex, December copper edged up by 0.1% to $US2.971 a pound, with prices nearly 4.7% lower on the week.
Meanwhile, the price of 62% Fe fines delivered to northern China rose 54 cents to $US115.21 on Friday for a weekly loss of 7.8%.
The price is now down 11.5% from its most recent high of $US130.17 on September 2 and prices are therefore now in a correction phase.
