Gold at 18-year high, up 1% on week
Silver at 7-month high, up 3% on week; copper at record
By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:23 PM ET Oct. 7, 2005
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures ended the week Friday with a gain of over 1% to mark their highest close in almost 18 years and silver prices ended at their loftiest level since mid-March, more than 3% above their week-ago close.
Gold has four "very positive factors going for it" at the moment, said Peter Grandich, editor of the Grandich Letter.
They are: double-digit jewelry demand growth, abundant investment demand, mine supply falling short of demand, and a "lessening negative effect of Central Bank sales or the talk of them," he said.
Against this backdrop, gold for December delivery added $2.70 to close at $477.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It hasn't closed at a level that high since late January of 1988, according to monthly charts.
Fresh investor interest also helped December silver climb 17.5 cents to $7.77 an ounce, its highest in almost seven months. It's up 3.4% from last Friday.
"All the bad news or catalysts that would generally cause gold prices to fall have been ineffective," including falling crude prices and strength in the dollar, said John Person, president of National Futures Advisory Service.
"At this point bad news for gold has actually helped it to see price appreciations," he said. "That tells me there is room to the upside and this rally is not over and in my opinion, not by a long shot."
Looking ahead, "gold prices should continue higher into next week," Person said, with the next major price resistance level at $497-$505 level, which could hit by mid-November.
In currency trading, the dollar looked to salvage most of the week's gains, helped on Friday by U.S. employment statistics that showed fewer post-hurricane job cuts in September than expected. See Currencies.
Meanwhile, the terrorist warning issued late Thursday for New York City's subway system "seemed to give gold support in Tokyo overnight," Nell Sloane, an analyst at NSFutures.com, said in daily commentary.
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