December Gold settles 1145.6, up $6.50 for the week of September 21st through September 25th
Gold futures snapped a two-day gain to end lower on Friday after having surged over 2 percent on Thursday, amid renewed expectations that the Federal Reserve may still hike interest rates this year. Gold futures gained about 0.6 percent for the week. A rate hike is appropriate in either October or December, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last night in a speech delivered at the University of Massachusetts. "If the FOMC were to delay the start of the policy normalization process for too long, we would likely end up having to tighten policy relatively abruptly to keep the economy from significantly overshooting its goals," Yellen said in a prepared speech. The speech was focused on inflation, which Yellen expects will return to 2 percent annual growth rate "over the next few years." She focused on some of the global headwinds that the Fed cited in last week's statement as reasons for not raising interest rates in September. Despite problems in China and Europe, Yellen does not think these issues will prove large enough "to have a significant path of the path of policy."
Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, dropped $8.20 or 0.7 percent, to settle at $1,145.60 on Friday. Gold for December delivery scaled an intraday high of $1, 151.10 and a low of $1,140.10 an ounce. On Wednesday, gold prices for December delivery surged $22.30 or 2.0 percent, to settle at $1,153.80 an ounce, as investors opted for the safe haven appeal of the precious metal after global equity markets continued to decline on some disappointing economic data from the U.S. The world’s top gold back exchange traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) shares saw a third straight day of inflows while the Central Banks of Russia and Kazakhstan raised their gold holdings for a sixth straight month in August, while Jordan and the United Arab Emirates both bolstered their reserves in July.