Mild gains for precious metals

Gold still suffered a 2.2% drop for the week

Bullion prices ended moderately higher at Comex on Friday, 19 December 2014 at Comex. Gold prices were steady to modestly higher in U.S. trading on Friday, on mild bargain hunting and some safe-haven demand heading into the weekend. Also, gold was still seeing some buying interest in the wake of Wednesday's FOMC meeting that was being deemed a bit dovish. However, a firmer U.S. dollar index and big gains in world stock markets limited the upside in gold and silver.

Gold for February delivery inched higher by $1.20, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,196.00 an ounce. Gold still suffered a 2.2% drop for the week, staying under the closely-watched level of $1,200.

March silver gained 10 cents, or 0.6%, to end at $16.03 an ounce.

Asian and European stock markets posted sharp gains on Friday, following Wall Street's lead from Thursday. The world stock markets' euphoria is stemming from dovishly construed FOMC meeting results on Wednesday. There are also ideas the European Central Bank will soon announce further monetary policy stimulus measures, which helped to boost the European equities. An upbeat German consumer sentiment report Friday also helped the European stock market bulls.

The Bank of Japan on Friday left its monetary policy unchanged at its regular meeting, which was expected. The BOJ also said plunging oil prices will not negatively impact the BOJ's efforts to fend off deflationary price pressures in the moribund Japan economy.

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