Gold prices rallied on Friday as the dollar lost ground against most major rivals alongside US treasury yields, but the precious metal still marked the worst monthly performance since September 2023.

The dollar index slipped 0.25% as of 18:46 GMT to 105.81 against a basket of major rivals. 

Gold’s losses came as the dollar rallied 1.75% this month on momentum following Donald Trump’s election victory, with promises of huge financial spending and inflationary tariffs.

Next week, the all-important US payrolls report for November will be released among other important labor data, which will influence the Federal Reserve’s policy decision.

On trading, gold futures due in December rose 1.6%, or $41.1 to $2681 an ounce, but marked a weekly loss of 1.15%, and a monthly decline of 2.5%. 

US stock indices rose in a truncated session on Friday, boosted by chipmakers stocks, after news that Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to impose more restrictions on Chinese chipmakers. 

The iShares Semiconductor Exchange Traded Fund rallied 1.15% today to $214.97. 

Bloomberg reported the US administration’s plans to restrict sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and AI-related memory chips in China. 

On trading, Dow Jones rose 0.4% as of 15:39 GMT, or 166 points to 44,888 points, while S&P 500 rose 0.5%, or 30 points to 6028 points, as NASDAQ added 0.7%, or 135 points to 19,195 points. 

Canada's GDP grew just 0.1% m/m in September, below estimates of 0.3%, and compared to a flatline in August. 

Global oil prices rose in American trade on Friday away from a week trough before the OPEC+ meeting in the weekend, with traders expecting a delay to the scheduled production hike in January.

The gains are boosted by a drop in US crude stocks last week, in a sign of improving demand.

Prices 

US crude rose 0.8% to $69.38 a barrel, with a session-low at $68.26.

Brent rose 0.7% to $73.15 a barrel, with a session-low at $72.07.

On Thursday, US crude rose 0.2%, while Brent rose 0.5%, the first profit in four days away from a week trough.

OPEC+ 

The OPEC+ alliance is convening in the weekend to discuss the latest market developments, and is highly expected to delay a scheduled production hike in January. 

The group is likely to issue a semi-unanimous call to delay the unwinding of voluntary production cuts amounting to 2.2 million bpd until the first quarter of 2025, in order to support prices. 

US Stocks 

The Energy Information Administration reported a drawdown of 1.8 million barrels last week to 428.4 million barrels, while analysts expected a drop of 0.5 million barrels. 

Gasoline stocks rose by 3.3 million barrels to 212.2 million barrels, as distillate stocks rose by 0.4 million barrels to 114.7 million barrels. 

US Output 

US crude output rose by 300 thousand bpd to a total of 13.5 million bpd, a record high.