WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled higher on Friday as the dollar failed to hold gains with traders reacting to U.S. producer price inflation data, and digesting mixed comments from Fed officials.
The dollar index, which climbed to 104.67 in early New York session, pared gains and dropped to 104.28, recording a marginal loss.
Gold futures for April ended higher by $9.20 at $2,024.10 an ounce. Gold futures shed about 0.6% in the week.
Silver futures for March ended up $0.524 at $23.475 an ounce, while Copper futures for March settled at $3.8385 per pound, gaining $0.0805.
Earlier in the week, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said that despite progress in fighting inflation, he was not ready to call for interest rate cuts due to ongoing risks.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said that the central bank should be wary of waiting too long before it cuts rates.
In Europe, ECB member and Bank of France head Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the central bank should favor gradual rate cuts rather than waiting too long to cut rates this year.
The risk of moving too late exists 'at least' as much as that of moving too soon, he said in an interview with Belgian newspaper L'Echo.
In economic news today, a report from the Labor Department showed the producer price index for final demand rose by 0.3% in January after edging down by 0.1% in December. Economists had expected producer prices to inch up by 0.1 %.
Excluding prices for food, energy, and trade services, core producer prices climbed by 0.6% in January after rising by 0.2% in December.
The report also showed the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 0.9% in January from 1% in December. Economists had expected the pace of growth to decelerate to 0.6%.
A report from the University of Michigan showed an uptick in consumer sentiment in the month of February. The report said the consumer sentiment index inched up to 79.6 in February after spiking to 79.0 in January. With the increase, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest level since hitting 81.2 in July 2021.
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