PRECIOUS-Gold firms on dollar retreat; set for best week in seven

* Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields hit over 1-year high
* Gold up 1.4% so far this week
* Silver on track for first weekly gain in four
* Platinum set to post biggest weekly gain in four weeks

(Recasts, adds comments, updates prices)
By Brijesh Patel
March 12 (Reuters) - Gold prices edged higher on Friday and
were on course for their best week in seven, as a slight
pullback in the dollar and weakness in equity markets offset
pressure from rising U.S. Treasury yields.
Spot gold XAU= was up 0.2% at $1,724.16 per ounce at 02:10
p.m. ET (1910 GMT), after falling as much as 1.4% earlier in the
session. Gold is up 1.4% so far this week.
U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled down 0.2% at $1,719.80.
"We've seen a bit of weakness in the U.S. dollar (index), it
slumped from around 92 to now just over 91.6," said Bart Melek,
head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.
"There's a little bit of risk off sentiment and I suspect
the psychological level of $1,700 where people weren't really
prepared to go under generated a bit of a rebound in the gold
market." MKTS/GLOB
Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR rose as high as
1.642%, a more than one-year peak. Meanwhile, the dollar index
.DXY pared gains, making gold less expensive for other
currency holders. US/ USD/
Some investors view gold as a hedge against higher inflation
that could follow stimulus measures, but higher Treasury yields
dull some of the appeal of the non-yielding commodity.
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed his $1.9 trillion
stimulus bill into law and said he was working to move the
United States closer to normality by July 4. "With physical demand providing something of a floor, we
doubt that the gold price will fall below $1,600 per ounce this
year," Capital Economics analysts said in a note. GOL/AS
"Given our forecast for industrial metals prices to fall
later this year, we wouldn't be surprised if the price of silver
fell relative to the price of gold."
Silver XAG= fell 0.9% to $25.85 an ounce, but was on track
for its first weekly gain in four weeks. Palladium XPD= rose
0.9% to $2,366.35. Platinum XPT= gained 0.5% to $1,200.41 an
ounce and was up 6.3% for the week.