Gold futures hovered near a six-month high Friday, ending the year little changed.
Price action
- Gold for February GC00, 1.19% GCG23, 1.18% delivery, the most actively traded contract, rose 20 cents, or less than 0.1%, to close at $1,826.20 an ounce, according to FactSet, down 0.1% for 2022. January gold GCF23, +0.98%, the front-month contract, rose 20 cents to end at $1819.70 an ounce. Based on front-month contracts, gold rose 0.4% in 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
- March silver SIH23, 1.05% fell 21 cents to $24.04 an ounce, down 0.9%. Based on front-month contracts, silver rose 2.3% in 2022.
- Palladium for March delivery PAH23, 1.81% shed 1.1% to close at $1,798 an ounce, while April platinum PLJ23, 1.28% rose 5.6% to $1,082.90 an ounce.
- March copper HGH23, 0.65% rose 0.4% to close at $3.8105 a pound.
Market drivers
Gold rose this week as a softer U.S. dollar helped bolster precious metals prices while traders continued to bet that the Federal Reserve could start to cut interest rates again some time next year, market analysts said.
Gold ticked higher but struggled to build momentum, said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note.
“The outlook may still look very positive for the yellow metal with central banks surely nearing peak interest rates and the economic outlook rather bleak but in the near term, a correction may be on the cards in the absence of another bullish catalyst,” he wrote.