Daily Gold Update

Source: Marketwatch

New York— Futures in the yellow metal ended higher Friday, supported by a weaker dollar and strong demand from Asian countries. Gold delivery for June, the most actively traded contract, added $11.30, or 1%, to end at $1,105.40 an ounce. Friday's finish helped narrow the losses for the week to 0.2%. The market again found some resistance around the $1,100 to $1,108 mark, with some light profit-taking polishing off some of gold's shine early on, according to Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS Finance in Geneva.

"But we saw quite remarkable pickup on demand from India and the Far East," which bodes well for gold's near-term prospects, he said. "We hadn't seen this kind of demand since Chinese New Year." The demand mostly came from jewelers and traders who believed they found a bargain, Nabavi added. Gold also got a small boost after news of a spike in tensions on the Korean peninsula, as a South Korean ship sank near the North Korean border, the trader said. Some stock analysts attributed the fall in the U.S. stock markets to the concerns. South Korea said it was still unclear what had caused the accident. See full story.