Gold edges lower for the week; copper suffers worse weekly fall in a year

Gold futures edged up on Friday, but posted a loss of 0.6% for the week, as copper prices suffered their largest weekly drop since June of last year. “Gold remains trapped in a range as traders await to see if the latest inflation reports will force the [Federal Reserve] into committing to more massive rate hikes beyond the July policy meeting,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. Meanwhile, worries about an economic recession continued to feed expectations for a drop in copper demand. August gold climbed by 50 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,830.30 an ounce. July copper settled at $3.7405 a pound, down a fraction of a cent for the session and losing 6.8% for the week.

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