Gold, silver set for weekly losses on tech selloff, stronger dollar

Gold and silver rose on Friday, even as they headed for a second week of declines after a global tech stock rout and a stronger U.S. dollar wiped out the precious metals' gains made during a brief rebound earlier this week.

Spot gold XAU= rose 1.1% to $4,822.69 per ounce by 0320 GMT, down 1.2% for the week. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for April delivery fell 1% to $4,840.40 per ounce.

Spot silver XAG= was up 0.4% at $71.50 an ounce after a 19.1% drop in the last session.

Friday's session was a volatile one for silver with prices rising as much as 3% after having fallen 10% to below the $65-level, a more than 1-1/2-month low.

The white metal was down almost 16% for the week. Last week it shed 18% in its biggest weekly fall since 2011.

"Risk appetite does look diminished, stocks are down, and obviously, we're seeing Bitcoin just come apart at the seams. There's all kinds of evidence that risk sentiment in general is weakening. In this environment, gold is kind of holding its own and silver is caving in under the risk-off," said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.

Global equities extended losses into a third session as a selloff on Wall Street intensified, with precious metals and cryptocurrencies gripped by wrenching volatility.MKTS/GLOB

"There was a sharp fall in (precious metal) prices yesterday, and now it's rebounding, so it's not like something has changed overnight. The correction in gold and silver prices came at the right time, just before Chinese New Year. So we could see more buying by Chinese consumers," said ANZ analyst Soni Kumari, adding that near-term volatility can continue until some unwinding of weak positions.

The U.S. dollar steadied near a two-week high and was poised for its strongest weekly performance since November. A stronger dollar makes greenback-priced assets more expensive for other currency holders. USD/

Spot platinum XPT= fell 3.6% to $1,916.60 per ounce after hitting an all-time high of $2,918.80 on January 26, while palladium XPD= gained 1.4% to $1,639.18. Both were down for the week.

-Ishaan Arora/Reuters