Gold and Silver Snips

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Gold futures pared losses to end marginally higher Friday as participants bought back previously sold positions and saw recently lower prices as a bargain.

December gold rose 90 cents to settle at $1,051.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.



"Gold prices and silver recovered from lows as bargain hunting and short covering for the weekend took place," said George Gero, vice president with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures. "Funds are interested in buying the dips as long as we don't see a protracted sell-off."

The metal has recently backed down from all-time time highs fueled by dollar weakness.

Technical chart-based buying also helped the metal Friday.

The December contract bounced off its 10-day moving average at $1,049.60 an ounce, said Charles Nedoss, senior account manager and metals analyst with Peak Trading Group.

"You're seeing some technical buying off of the 10-day more than anything else," he said. Nedoss also noted that dollar moves provided slight support. "The dollar has bled off from its highs," he said.

Shortly after gold closed, the ICE Futures U.S. dollar index was up 0.135 point at 75.616, down from a 75.904 high.

Earlier in the day, the rise in the U.S. dollar caused gold to falter.

"The overriding component in this morning???s . . . drop was attributable to dollar strength," said Kitco Metals senior analyst Jon Nadler.

Silver futures ended near steady after also making up losses. Support came from bargain hunting and participants buying back previously sold positions, Gero said. Comex December silver rose half a cent to settle at $17.42 an ounce.

Platinum group metals ended mixed after quiet trading. Volume was light in electronic trading heading into the weekend, a trader said. Nymex January platinum fell $7 to settle at $1,348.50 an ounce while December palladium on the exchange gained $2.50 to settle at $330.65 an ounce.

"Everything just kind of hovered," the trader said.