Gold prices slump below key level on Black Friday, set for sharpest weekly fall in 2 months

“The breakdown of the support level of $1,850 has damaged the medium-term trend for gold, opening space for further correction,” wrote Carlo Alberto De Casa, chief analyst at ActivTrades in a Friday research note.

“With US markets working shorter hours today due to the Thanksgiving long weekend, there are good chances of seeing a relatively quiet trading session with the bullion price moving laterally in the range of the last few days between $1,800 and $1,810,” the analyst wrote before the morning’s slide in prices.

On Friday, December gold GCZ20, -1.63%  shed $24.20, or 1.4%, to trade at $1,787 an ounce, after rising 0.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, February gold GCG21, -1.62%, the most active contract, was trading $22.80, or 1.3%, lower at $1,788.40 an ounce.

Gold trading on Friday puts it well beneath its 200-day moving average at $1,802.11, an area that technical analysts have viewed as support for the asset. A settlement at its current price would also mark gold’s lowest since early July.

Silver for December delivery SIZ20, -4.07%, meanwhile, was trading 85 cents, or 3.6%, lower to trade at $22.59 an ounce, following a 0.3% gain in the previous session. March silver SIH21, -4.01%, the new most-active contract, was off 84 cents, or 3.7%, to trade at $22.585 an ounce.

For the week thus far, gold futures have lost over 4%, which would mark its steepest weekly skid since the period ended Sept. 25, based on the most-active contracts.

Silver has lost nearly 7%, so far, FactSet data show, and futures for the metal have produced three consecutive weekly declines, which would market the longest string of weekly losses since the three-week span ended May 1.

Gold’s decline has come despite weakness in the U.S. dollar, which commodities are priced in, and a retreat in government bond yields.

The U.S. dollar was off 0.1% on Friday and has dropped to around a three-year low at 91.93, as gauged by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, -0.09%. The 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 0.857% fell 1.9 basis points to 0.859%. Bond prices rise as yields fall.