: Gold futures post a 5th straight weekly climb

Gold futures rose on Friday to tally a fifth weekly climb in a row. This year, “the hot money has run into Comex, as well as Shanghai futures and options, betting that prices will keep surging on chatter over heavy central-bank demand, plus the strong household buying expected in China for the Lunar New Year holidays,” said Adrian Ash, director of research at BullionVault. However, “a pullback in gold could very well come next week, when China’s Spring Festival will shut both Shanghai’s gold and its futures exchanges,” he said. “That will remove a big chunk of physical demand as well as leveraged speculation from the market.” Gold for February delivery GCG23 rose $4.30, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,928.20 an ounce on Comex. For the week, prices for the most-active contract rose 0.3%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

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