WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices slipped on Friday and the most active gold futures contract posted its biggest weekly loss in about eleven months, as traders switched over to buying mode in stock markets after recent hefty losses.
Prospects of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates by 50 basis points at the next two meetings weighed on the yellow metal.
Jerome Powell, who has been confirmed to head the Fed for a second four-year term, said in an interview that the battle to control inflation would 'include some pain' and the U.S. central bank would manage to tighten borrowing costs without going so far as to tip the economy into recession.
The dollar's retreat after climbing to a fresh two-decade high, capped gold's downside. The dollar index, which rose to 105.01, dropped to around 104.50 later on in the session, netting a loss of about 0.3%.
Gold futures for June ended lower by $16.40 or about 0.9% at $1,808.20 an ounce, recording their fourth successive weekly loss. Gold futures shed about 3.9% in the week.
Silver futures for July ended up by $0.228 at $21.001 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $4.1750 per pound, gaining $0.0745.
In economic releases, a report from the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. has deteriorated by much more than expected in the month of May.
The report showed the consumer sentiment index tumbled to 59.1 in May from 65.2 in April. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 64.0.
With the much bigger than expected decrease, the consumer sentiment index slumped to its lowest level since hitting 55.8 in August of 2011.
A separate report released by the Labor Department showed imports prices were unexpectedly unchanged in the month of April, after surging by an upwardly revised 2.9% in March. Economists had expected import prices to climb by 0.6% compared to the 2.6% jump originally reported for the previous month.
The report also showed the annual rate of growth in imports prices slowed to 12% in April from an upwardly revised 13% in March.
French inflation was confirmed at an annual 5.4%, in April. Industrial output in the euro zone fell an annualized 0.8% in March versus a -0.6% decline expected, Eurostat data showed.
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