WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures ended lower Friday, slipping to a two-week low on lingering concerns about the Greek austerity deal with new political developments unfolding in the debt-ridden country.
The Greek drama took a further twist with four ministers resigning from the cabinet suggesting all is not well with the deal purported to have been agreed to on Thursday. The resignations came amidst widespread protests in Greece with a 48-hour strike over the austerity proposals. There were several reports of clashes between protesters and riot police in Athens and several other Greek towns and cities on Friday.
Late Thursday, EU finance ministers said they will hold back the euro 130-billion bailout package until Greece lawmakers pass the austerity measures into law.
Gold for April delivery, the most actively traded contract, closed up $15.90 or 0.9 percent at $1,741.20 an ounce on Friday. The precious metal traded at an intraday high of $1,737.20 an ounce and a low of $1,706.40 an ounce.
Also impacting gold prices were CME Group's move to cut the collateral for traders to trade its benchmark crude-oil, gold and other futures. CME is to cut the costs to trade its light, sweet crude-oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Such trading costs will also be cut for benchmark gold, silver and copper futures. The new rates will come into force after close of business on Monday.
Snapping a three day decline, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against six major currencies, climbed to 79.028 on Friday from 78.582 in late Thursday trade.
The euro traded at $1.3179 on Friday, down from $1.3287 late Thursday. The euro had scaled a 2-month high of $1.3321 in intraday trading yesterday.
In economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department said U.S. exports came in at $178.8 billion while imports were recorded at $227.6 billion in December, resulting in an increase in the trade deficit to $48.8 billion from the $47.1 billion in November.
Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has deteriorated by more than expected in the month of February, according to a release by Reuters and the University of Michigan on Friday, with the drop largely reflecting a more negative assessment of current economic conditions. The consumer sentiment index dropped to a reading of 72.5 in February from January's final reading of 75.0. Economists expected the index to edge down to 74.8.
Elsewhere, Germany's inflation, as measured by the EU methodology, remained steady at 2.3 percent in January, unrevised from the flash estimate, a report from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Month-on-month, the indicator dipped 0.5 percent.
UK's output price inflation eased in January to the lowest level since November 2010, the Office for National Statistics said. Output prices for home sales of manufactured products rose 4.1 percent year-on-year in January, compared to a rise of 4.8 percent in the previous month.
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