London - The price of gold raced higher this week, reaching almost $1 000 an ounce as investors sought a safe-haven amid concerns over the strength of economic recovery, analysts said.
"Gold stole the headlines... as resurgent investment demand pushed the metal to its highs since February," said James Moore, an analyst for TheBullionDesk.com.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold was up to $989 an ounce from $955.50 a week earlier.
Silver jumped to $15.95 an ounce from $14.54.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum edged up to $1 244 an ounce at the late fixing on Friday from $1 242.
Palladium grew to $290 an ounce from $288.50.
Base metals prices traded mixed as lead struck a 15-month high of $2 387 a tonne while copper fell from one-year peaks reached a week earlier.
"Lead was again the stand-out performer rising almost 8% (Thursday)... on heightened concerns about Chinese lead supply," said Barclays Capital analyst Gayle Berry.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months dropped to $6 265 a tonne from $6 518 a week earlier.
Crude oil prices slid from above $70 a barrel this week, tracking stock markets lower.
They continued to fall on Friday after the world's biggest energy consumer the United States reported a rise in its unemployment rate and as traders booked profits before a long US holiday weekend.
The US unemployment rate jumped to 9.7% in August as 216 000 jobs were lost, the US government said on Friday in a report suggesting steadying labour market conditions in the world's biggest economy.
The jobless rate rose three-tenths of a point to the highest level since June 1983, but the data nonetheless showed an easing of the massive pace of job losses in an economy struggling to emerge from recession.
Elsewhere, oil traders were gearing up for next week's Opec ministerial meeting in Vienna to decide on the cartel's crude production levels.
Angola, 2009 president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has said the cartel should maintain production at existing levels during the September 9 meeting.
Crude prices briefly hit $75 last week, the highest level in 10 months but soon fell back again as analysts questioned the strength of demand for oil.
Oil market traders have looked to China to support an expected rebound in global oil demand in 2010, after two years of contraction.
Meanwhile news of a potential increase in supplies came on Wednesday as British energy major BP said it had made a "giant" oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico after drilling one of the industry's deepest-ever wells.
- AFP