Gold Finishes the Week Higher After Dipping into Bear Market Territory

On Friday, gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) futures for June delivery increased $17 to settle at $1,591.90 per ounce, gaining 0.5 percent for the week. Meanwhile, silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) futures jumped 70 cents to close at $28.72.

Both precious metals climbed higher after the U.S. dollar index declined to as low as 81.26 today. “The move up is largely a bounce back from the steep declines we had been seeing in the last two weeks,” said Rohit Savant, an analyst with CPM Group. Gold briefly entered into a bear market earlier this week, but posted its largest gain since January on Thursday.

Don’t Miss: Is Facebook Stealing Apple’s Thunder?

A new report released this week by the World Gold Council also helped to stabilize prices. A bright spot for gold demand continues to be the investment sector. For the first-quarter of 2012, gold investment demand jumped 13 percent to 389.3 tonnes, compared to only 343.5 tonnes a year earlier.

In afternoon trading, the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD) increased 1.07 percent, while the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV) bounced 2.06 percent. Gold miners (NYSEARCA:GDX) such as Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE:GG) and Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) edge .09 percent and .66 percent higher, respectively. Silver miners (NYSEARCA:SIL) First Majestic (NYSE:AG) and Silvercorp Metals Inc. (NYSE:SVM) gained 4.13 percent and 1.76 percent, respectively.

Investor Insight: What are Hedge Funds Doing With Gold?

If you would like to receive professional analysis on equity miners and other precious metal investments, we invite you to try our premium service free for 14 days.

Disclosure: Long EXK, AG, HL, PHYS