Gold futures climbed for a second day, erasing this week's losses as investors continued to close out bets on lower prices following the 10-month lows hit earlier this week. Others added to their holdings of the yellow metal on the view that the Federal Reserve may be more likely to deploy more easy-money policies after a set of sluggish economic indicators and the week's bleak news from Europe. The most-actively traded gold contract, for June delivery, rose $17, or 1.1 percent, to settle at $1,591.90 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. During the week, futures rose $7.90, or 0.5 percent. “It's been a seesaw like I haven't seen in a while,” said George Gero, a vice president and precious metals strategist with RBC Capital Markets, of this week's trading. “Funds ran out of gold. As soon as they ran out, they stormed back in.” The psychologically important $1,600-per-ounce mark remained elusive. It got close, hitting an intraday high of $1,597.4 an ounce in late morning, before meeting technical resistance and easing back to around $1,590. Spot gold was up 1 percent at $1,588.96 an ounce at 2:06 p.m. EDT (1806 GMT), while US gold futures for June delivery settled 1.08 percent higher at $1,591.9. That takes gold up 0.6 percent on the week, snapping two weeks of losses.
