8th October 2017

 Gold recovered from a two-month low of $1262.80 on Friday, to finish up by almost $6/ounce at $1278. Its recovery was rather impressive considering that the dollar strengthened late in the day against most major currencies, although it did lose slight ground basis the general dollar index. Meanwhile, the CFTC reported that speculators cut their bearish bets last week on the dollar from the highest net short position in some five years. Gold shorts also likely covered their positions heading into the weekend on Russian reports that North Korea was preparing to test a long-range missile that could conceivably hit the US West Coast. In addition, in deliberately vague remarks, President Trump alluded to a possible “calm before the storm,” suggesting that some sort of military action was imminent. Despite Friday’s recovery in gold, the precious metal was down .5% on the week and had its fourth consecutive weekly selloff, the longest losing streak so far this year.