Gold futures fall for the session, gain 0.4% for the week

Gold futures declined on Friday, as optimism that phase one of a U.S.-China trade deal will soon be reached, and strength in the U.S. stock market dulled haven demand for the metal. For the week, however, gold tacked on 0.4%. "Despite this recent bout of counterintuitive losses, gold looks strong both technically and, more importantly, from a fundamental point of view," said Mark O'Byrne, research director at GoldCore. "From a technical point of view, gold looks very bullish with a series of higher lows and higher highs and with the long term moving averages looking good," he said. "From a fundamental point of view, global demand is strong as seen with central bank becoming net buyers and strong retail investment demand as seen in very robust demand for gold [exchange-traded funds]." December gold lost $4.90, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,468.50 an ounce.

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