Gold and silver prices turned higher during Asian trading on Friday, attracting some bargain hunting after a volatile week marked by sharp swings and heavy losses.
Silver continued to lag and was still on course for a weekly drop of roughly 14%, having largely erased a recent rebound. Gold, while also heading for a weekly decline, held up relatively better but was still trading around $800 an ounce below the record highs reached last week.
Easing geopolitical concerns also weighed on demand for safe-haven assets, with signs of cooling tensions between Iran and the U.S. ahead of planned talks in Oman later in the day.
Gold set for modest weekly fall after rebounding from near one-month low
Spot gold slipped 0.9% to $4,825.31 an ounce by 22:56 ET (03:56 GMT), while April gold futures fell 1% to $4,842.44 an ounce.
On a weekly basis, spot gold was down about 0.9%, after struggling to sustain levels above $5,000 an ounce. Still, prices remained comfortably above a near one-month low touched earlier in the week.
“The selloff in the gold market was a little bit more contained due to greater liquidity and less aggressive positioning by investors,” ANZ analysts wrote in a note.
Silver heads for steep weekly loss as rebound loses momentum
Spot silver rose 2.8% to $72.9655 an ounce, while silver futures were down 5.1% at $72.760 an ounce.
Silver prices had plunged as much as 16% on Thursday before paring some of those losses by the close. Even so, the metal was down around 14% for the week, following an almost 18% collapse from record highs seen last week.
“We continue to reiterate that 70–90 region now represents a critical stabilisation zone; sustained failure to hold above this area may risk deeper correction towards USD 58/60 levels,” OCBC analysts said in a note. “But should prices hold up in this range, then bullish momentum may rebuild at some point later.”
Other precious metals remained under pressure as well. Spot platinum fell 1.8% to $1,953.17 an ounce and was down nearly 10% for the week, following a steep 22% drop last week.
The broader metals complex has been under sustained selling pressure since last week, initially triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair to succeed Jerome Powell.
Warsh is widely viewed as less dovish, a perception that has supported a rebound in the U.S. dollar and weighed on metal prices. The greenback was heading for its strongest weekly performance since early October, with weaker labor market data doing little to slow its advance.
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