Gold settles 1% down on the week WTI falls to post 9.6% weekly loss

(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) Gold futures held their ground above $1150 an ounce today finding some support as economic data cooled expectations for a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase as early as June but prices lost 1 percent for the week pressured by gains in the U.S. dollar.

April gold climbed 50 cents to settle at $1152.40 an ounce on Comex. For the week it logged a loss of about 1 percent.

Gold had held on to earlier gains after data showed the U.S. producer-price index fell more than expected. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index came in at 91.2 in March the worst reading since November.

A stronger dollar weighs on dollar-denominated commodities making them more expensive to users of other currencies.

In other metals trading May silver fell 0.1 percent to $15.494 an ounce — nearly 2% lower for the week.

April platinum rose 30 cents to end at $1115.20 an ounce while June palladium tacked on 0.2 percent to $788.70 an ounce. Both contracts saw losses closer to 4 percent for the week.

May copper settled at $2.6635 a pound up a half cent for the session to tally a gain of roughly 2.2 percent for the week.

In energy trading oil futures fell today to tally a weekly loss of 9.6 percent as the market continued to fret over the glut of U.S. crude supplies.

West Texas Intermediate for April delivery fell 4.7 percent for the session to settle at $44.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.