By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Gold prices eased off in early trade in New York on Friday, but were still on course for a 2% gain for the week as money continued to flow into gold-backed exchange-traded funds.
By 11:30 AM ET (1530 GMT), gold futures for delivery on the Comex exchange were down 0.9% at $1,715.53 an ounce, while spot gold was down 1% at $1,714.78.
Silver futures were down by 1.1% at $15.18 an ounce, on course to end the week fractionally lower, while platinum futures were down 2.5% at $768.70. U.S. Treasury yields were flat to slightly lower, as weak U.S. durable goods orders data for March and Michigan consumer sentiment numbers for April took the steam out of an early rally in stocks.
The yellow metal has profited this week from the weakness of the euro, which fell to a one-month low against the dollar earlier Friday in the wake of another disappointing European Union summit that again dodged the issue of what to do with record debt ratios in the euro zone periphery after the crisis passes.
At the summit, leaders reportedly disagreed over whether the putative European "recovery fund" – which may or not be financed out of an expanded EU budget – should disburse grants or loans. Given likely increases in debt and decreases in GDP, the public debt ratio of the likes of Italy and Greece will be well beyond anything previously considered sustainable by the end of next year, in the absence of real, large-scale fiscal transfers.
The European Central Bank reportedly stepped up its purchases of eurozone government bonds after the summit on Friday, using its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program to keep speculation on a eurozone breakup capped.
Gold hit an all-time high in euro terms of $1612.99 an ounce on Thursday, although it has come by around 1% since then. Jan Niuwenhuis, editor at the Voima Gold website, pointed out that the euro has now depreciated by some 85% against gold since its launch in 1999.