24th February 2018

 Gold prices retreated on Friday, down by a little more than $2/ounce to finish at $1330/ounce. However, for the week as a whole, the precious metal suffered its worst setback in some 2 1/2 months. Friday’s mild selloff in gold was largely attributable to a slight pickup in the dollar, which ended with its second biggest weekly gain for the year. Against individual currencies, the dollar finished at just under 1.23 against the Euro, 106.80 against the yen and $1.3965 against sterling. The dollar’s modest strengthening was all the more impressive in light of the fact that US Treasury yields proceeded to move lower, ending the day at 2.87%. This was despite the fact that there was almost $280 billion of new treasury supply sold into the market, the second-largest auction ever over a three-day period, this according to Reuters.