Gold futures settled higher on Friday to mark their first weekly gain since the week ended Nov. 12. U.S. data showed the rate of inflation at a nearly 40-year high of 6.8% in November. “A lot of the inflation is stickier than anyone wants and that should keep gold’s medium- and long-term outlooks bullish,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. “Gold just needs to survive a firm consensus on how many rate hikes the [Federal Reserve] will start off with next year,” he said. “An accelerated rate-hiking cycle is a big risk and could trigger panic selling that could prove troublesome for gold in the short term, but that still seems unlikely to happen.” February gold GCG22, -0.10% rose $8.10, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,784.80 an ounce. For the week, prices settled slightly above the most-active contract’s week-ago finish of $1,783.90.
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