Metals Stocks: Gold churns below key $1,300 line ahead of consumer inflation snapshot

Gold futures churned on Friday below the key $1,300 level, hanging in near the more than two-week high scored in the previous session ahead of another potentially telling reading on U.S. inflation.

December gold

GCZ7, -0.08%

traded barely moved at $1,296.50 an ounce. Its settlement Thursday at that level was the highest since Sept. 26, according to FactSet data. The contract is headed toward a nearly 1.7% gain for the week, according to FactSet. The exchange-traded SPDR Gold Shares

GLD, +0.08%

 added less than 0.1% in premarket trading, on track for a weekly gain of about 1.6%.

The consumer price index report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. It’s expected to show a headline rate of inflation increasing to a 0.6% clip, with the less-volatile core rate excluding food and energy holding at a 0.2% gain, compared to a month earlier. Retail sales data will also be released at that time, with consumer sentiment and business inventories data due out later.

As for the CPI report, “an outcome echoing steady improvement in U.S. news flow relative to median forecasts over the past four months may breathe new life into Fed rate-hike speculation, boosting the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields alike to the detriment of anti-fiat and non-interest bearing assets including the yellow metal,” said Ilya Spivak, commodities and currency strategist with Daily FX.

Although the market’s reaction was relatively subdued, Fed meeting minutes released this week suggested that Chairwoman Janet Yellen and other policy makers will increase interest rates once more in December, but that efforts to normalize policy will otherwise run at a gradual pace. Wall Street is pricing in an 83% chance of a rate increase in December, according to CME Group data.

A popular dollar gauge, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index

DXY, -0.02%

was down slightly Friday and has weakened 0.9% over the week. A softer buck can make commodities priced in the currency more appealing to buyers using weaker monetary units.

Read: Currency traders have already worn out there 2017 trading themes

Elsewhere, silver for December delivery

SIZ7, -0.12%

fell about 2 cents, or 0.1%, to $17.24 an ounce. It had gained in five of the last six sessions with Thursday’s close. The silver-focused ETF, the iShares Silver Trust

SLV, +0.06%

rose 0.2% premarket.

In other Comex trading, December copper

HGZ7, +0.43%

  rose 1 cent, or 0.4%, to $3.1315 a pound. January platinum

PLF8, -0.05%

 shed $2, or 0.2%, to $939.80 an ounce, while December palladium

PAZ7, +1.19%

 rose $6.05, or 0.6%, at $979.75 an ounce. It’s up almost 6% for the week, on track for its best such gain since at least early June.