Gold climbs before US holiday, ends week lower

New York: Gold prices edged higher on Friday after another day of choppy trading but the shiny metal still finished the week lower after broad commodities selling earlier in the week due in part to a strong dollar.

Gold's globally traded spot contract and New York's most active futures each rose about 1 per cent for the session as investors and traders pared bearish bets ahead of tomorrow's Memorial Day holiday, which made for a longer weekend in the United States.

Earlier in the day, gold came under pressure after a plea for help from Spain's wealthy Catalonia region. That plea forced then euro, already battered by Greece's woes, to a new 22-month low versus the dollar.

As the session progressed, the precious metal recovered.

"There was a little bit of book squaring up ahead of the weekend," said Bill O'Neill, an investor in gold and partner at LOGIC Advisors in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

"Three days of headlines is something you really don't want to be involved with," O'Neill said, referring to the period that the gold futures market on New York's Comex would be closed before it reopens Tuesday.

Traders have been reviewing their positions across US markets in the run-up to Memorial Day, many unwilling to put on excessively "short", or bearish, calls should the situation in Greece or the Eurozone improve considerably before Tuesday.

In Friday's session, Comex's most-active gold futures contract, June, settled at $1,568.90, up 0.7 per cent on the day.

On a weekly basis, however, June gold fell 1.2 per cent due to losses during the first three days of the week, particularly on Wednesday when almost every commodity plunged.

Spot gold hovered at just under $1,572 (Dh5,769) an ounce, up 1 per cent on the day and down 1.3 per cent on the week.