Metals Stocks: Gold drops, pulling prices down for the week

Gold futures ended lower on Friday, leading prices to an overall loss for the week just a day after posting their second-highest settlement on record, as investors weighed expectations that the Federal Reserve may soon halt its campaign of interest rate increases.Price action
Gold futures for June delivery
GC00,
-1.72%

GCM23,
-1.72%
fell by $39.50, or 1.9%, to settle at $2,015.80 per ounce on Comex. Prices for the front-month contract lost 0.5% higher for the week, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Silver futures for May delivery
SI00,
-1.56%

SIK23,
-1.56%
declined by 46 cents, or 1.8%, to $25.46 per ounce. It ended 1.5% higher for the week.

Palladium futures for June delivery
PAM23,
+0.13%
rose 70 cents, or nearly 0.1%, to $1,496.30 per ounce, for a weekly rise of 2.3%, while platinum futures for July delivery
PLN23,
-0.88%
declined by $11.50, or 1.1%, to $1,054 per ounce, with prices up 3.7% for the week.

Copper futures for May delivery
HGK23,
-0.19%
shed 2 cents, or 0.4%, to $4.11 per pound. Prices for the industrial metal saw a weekly rise of 2.3%.

Market drivers Friday’s price action “suggests gold is overbought in the near term,” said Andrew Schrage, chief executive officer at Money Crashers.

Gold futures on Thursday shot to their highest levels since Aug. 6 2020, closing in on the all-time settlement high from that date of $2,069.40, as a softening U.S. dollar, recession fears and expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon end its campaign of interest rate rises have bolstered demand for precious metals. “For gold to break through any records, we’d probably need some confirmation that the [Federal Reserve] is done hiking rates,” Schrage told MarketWatch. “Markets are coming around to this idea, but there’s still significant uncertainty.”

Gold has benefitted from central bank gold buying, further weakness in the …

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