Gold prices drifted lower on Friday, losing ground for a third straight session, as global equities surged higher on improved risk appetite.
Optimism about Covid-19 treatment, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s guidance on reopening state economies in the coming months contributed to the improvement in risk appetite.
The dollar’s weakness perhaps limited gold’s losses. The dollar index dropped to 99.62, losing about 0.4% from previous close.
Gold futures for June ended down $32.90, or about 1.9%, at $1,698.80 an ounce.
Gold futures lost about 3.1% in the week.
Silver futures for May ended down $0.327 at $15.295 an ounce, while Copper futures for May settled at $2.3445 per pound, gaining $0.0535.
On Thursday, President Trump issued guidelines to governors on reopening state economies in the coming months.
The president told the nation’s governors that they could begin reopening businesses, restaurants and other elements of daily life by May 1 or earlier if they wanted to for recovering from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic.
The guidelines say that the number of cases and positive tests in a state or region should be declining in order to reopen.
“America wants to be open and Americans want to be open,” Trump said. “A national shutdown is not a sustainable long-term solution.”
Stock prices soared in global markets after health-care publication STAT News reported that the experimental Covid-19 treatment remdesivir is showing promise in a Chicago clinical trial.
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