Gold rose, capping its first weekly gain in a month, as a declining dollar boosted demand from investors seeking an alternative. Platinum and palladium also gained, while silver fell.
The dollar lost as much as 1.1 percent against the euro today, heading for a second weekly decline, as U.S. unemployment climbed last month to the highest rate since 1994, indicating the financial crisis is taking its toll. Gold generally moves in the opposite direction of the U.S. currency.
''Gold came up this morning on the euro strength,'' said Frank McGhee, the head metals dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services in Chicago. Gold will be ''bullish'' in the long term as inflation accelerates, he said.
Gold futures for December delivery climbed $2, or 0.3 percent, to $734.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price advanced 2.2 percent for the week, the first gain for a most-active contract since the five days ended Oct. 10.
The dollar dropped 0.2 percent to trade at $1.2746 per euro, after earlier touching $1.285. The 15-nation European currency was headed for a second straight weekly gain against the dollar after rising 0.8 percent last week.
''Gold will go up, because it is the only money you can trust,'' Michael Martin, a trader at R.F. Lafferty Inc. in New York, said today in an e-mailed note.
Gold reached a record $1,033.90 an ounce in March as the euro headed for an all-time high against the dollar in July.
Silver futures for December delivery fell 9.2 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $9.963 an ounce on the Comex. That leaves the metal up 2.4 percent for the week.
Silver Outlook
Silver will outperform gold as a hedge against inflation, investor Jim Rogers said in an interview on Nov. 3. Silver is down 33 percent this year, while gold has fallen 12 percent.
''It's been beaten down horribly,'' said Rogers, the chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings. ''If you put a gun to my head and said you have to buy one, I would buy silver rather than gold.''
Silver futures may ''spike higher'' to $22 an ounce in the next six months, Carlos Sanchez, associate director of research at CPM Group, said in an interview in China's southern Haikou city.
Anglo Platinum Ltd., the world's biggest producer of the metal, said it is still supplying customers from its Polokwane smelter in South Africa after an accident on Nov. 5. The company said the incident at the plant, 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of Johannesburg, may cut output by as much as 200,000 ounces this year.
Platinum futures for January delivery rose $13.70, or 1.6 percent, to $852 an ounce on the Nymex. December palladium was up $1.40, or 0.6 percent, to $224 an ounce in New York.
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