Going by the statistics at the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex unit, gold prices fell by $1 - trading close to a six-month high -, and gold for December delivery finished at $996.70 an ounce on Friday, finishing the week with a 4 percent increase!

Gold futures, which tend to gain when the dollar weakens, touched $999.50 on Thursday, reflecting the biggest weekly surge since April, and a six-month high - the highest price since February 23!

Meanwhile, silver soared 9.9 percent during the week; with silver December delivery being $16.2850 an ounce on Friday.

Analyzing the surge in the price of gold, against the US Dollar Index falling 0.6 percent, Al Abaroa, a senior commodities strategist at the Plantation, florida-based OptionsPro Corp., said: "The market's rally over the last few days, while impressive, has left the short-term charts in overbought territory. A pullback can go down to as low as the $965 range and still keep the bullish chart pattern intact."

In a report, David Barclay, a commodities strategist at London's Standard Chartered, and David Semmens, New York-based economist at the bank, said that gold would likely not increase anywhere close to its earlier inflation-adjusted highs. Barclay and Semmens added that though gold will continue to surge into 2010, it is expected to move lower in the first quarter of 2010, and average $1,100 an ounce for the year!