Gold Wraps up Year Just Above $1,280

Investing.com – Gold won’t make it to $1,300 an ounce for 2018, falling less than $20 short of the target.

But there’s plenty of potential for it to get there in the new year.

COMEX hit a new six-month high of $1,286.45 per ounce, before wrapping the final session of 2018 at $1,281.30, down $1.70 on the day. For the year, gold ended down 2%.

Gold’s retreat at the highs came as U.S. stocks cut some losses on what was shaping to be their worst year since the financial crisis.

Walter Pehowich, executive vice-president at Dillon Gage Metals in Addison, Texas, said in his 2019 outlook last week that he expected gold to benefit from geopolitical risks and a softening dollar.

The , which weighs the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was down nearly 0.25% at 95.743 by 2:22 PM ET (19:22 GMT).

“I expect physical demand for gold to increase exponentially, as investors watch the U.S. debt explode and the costs of entitlements getting totally out of hand as our politicians continue to ignore all the warning signs,” Pehowich said.

It was the first drop for gold in 11 days of trading amid fears of a global recession and worries over the partial U.S. government shutdown since last week.

In other precious metals on COMEX, settled up 0.5% at $15.52 a troy ounce. For the year, it fell 9%.

rose 1.2% to $1,197.20. For 2018 it rose 13%.

Sister metal rose 0.5% to $800.30.

In base metals, COMEX fell 2% to settle at $2.63 per pound.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.