Gold Futures End Higher For The Day, Down 5% For February

Gold futures settled higher on Friday, but fell for the month of February. Gold saw gains this week amid "robust demand from China" and mixed economic data, "which suggests the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero percent for longer than had been expected," said Mark O'Byrne, director at GoldCore. But after an 8% price climb in January, gold suffered a decline of 5% for the month. April gold rose $3, or 0.3%, for the session to settle at $1,213.10 an ounce on Comex.