April 19, 2013, 2:57 p.m. EDT
Gold futures suffer a 7% loss for the week

Metal logs fourth weekly loss; silver sinks almost 13% on week

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures ended higher for a second straight session Friday, finding support from strength in physical demand for the metal after a tumultuous week that ended with a loss of 7% in prices.
Gold for June delivery /quotes/zigman/647778 GCM3 +0.52% rose $3.10, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,395.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, coming off an intraday high of $1,424.70.
They lost $105.80 an ounce from last Friday’s close of $1,501.40 to mark the metal’s fourth-weekly loss in a row. On a percentage basis, that was the biggest weekly loss for a most-active contract since the week ended Sept. 23, 2011, according to FactSet data.
Still, prices managed to recover some ground after falling to a closing low of $1,361.10 on Monday.
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“We have to respect the significant technical selling that occurred over the past week, even though gold has recovered a portion of that loss in subsequent trading days this week,” said Scott Carter, chief executive offer of Los Angeles-based Lear Capital, which helps investors diversify their portfolios with the purchase of precious metals.
“With Gold up over 400% over the past decade, it’s a bit premature to write its obituary,” he said.
The talk of demand for physical gold has been growing since the selloff in gold futures last Friday and on Monday. Losses during those two sessions resulted in a drop of more than $200 an ounce in prices for the precious metal.
The market attributed the declines to everything from a lowered gold price forecast from Goldman Sachs and other banks and drops in gold holdings among exchange-traded funds to worries about central-bank gold sales in the wake of talk that Cyprus may sell some gold to aid in its financial bailout.
Gold futures are set for a loss of more than 6% on the week.
The market is seeing selling of gold exchange-traded funds, “while there is enormous, I would call it intense, demand for the physical metal itself worldwide,” said Gene Arensberg, editor of the Got Gold Report. “It’s like there are several years worth of pent up bargain-hunting demand for gold turning loose with gold at or below $1,400.”
Commerzbank analysts, citing data from the U.S. Mint, said that 153,000 ounces of U.S. gold coins have been sold since the month began. “This means that the current month has already achieved the highest sales volume of any month since December 2009,” the analysts said.
The gold market will also look to data from the Commitments of Traders report due out late Friday from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“The CFTC’s data on market positioning ... will show the extent to which money managers withdrew from gold in the wake of the crash at the start of the week,” said analysts at the Commerzbank, in a note Friday.
The key “will be the changes in the level of gross shorts held by speculators (managed money) and whether the hedgers still have the lowest number of hedges since the 2008 panic,” said Arensberg.
　
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-reclaims-1400-but-takes-a-hit-for-the-week-2013-04-19