UNITED STATES November 30 2016 11:25 AM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): United States gold scrap prices dropped on Friday; while gold futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange settled to fresh five-year lows, with the precious metal posting its sixth consecutive weekly loss, as the strengthening dollar continues to encourage selling.

The major gold scrap commodities on the Scrap Register Price Index traded down on Friday. The 9ct hallmarked gold scrap prices declined to $384.629 an ounce and 14ct hallmarked gold scrap prices dropped to $600.022 an ounce. The 18ct hallmarked gold scrap and 22ct hallmarked gold scrap prices also traded down at $769.258 ounce and $939.521 an ounce respectively. 

According to Scrap Register Price Index, the 9ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices also dropped to $363.812 an ounce and 14ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices down to $567.546 an ounce on Wednesday. The 18ct non-hallmarked gold scrap and 22ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices are also traded lower at $727.623 an ounce and $888.671 an ounce respectively. 

However, the most active December gold contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled down by $13.80 an ounce to $1,056.20 an ounce on Friday.

Gold futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange settled lower mainly due to the pressure from a firm dollar and prospects of a U.S. interest rate hike next month. 

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that new home sales rose by 10.7% to 495,000 units last month. The report came shortly after the U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims declined by 12,000 last week to 260,000. 

A separate report showed that durable goods orders jumped 3.0% in October, easily surpassing forecasts for 1.5%. Core durable goods orders, excluding volatile transportation items, rose 0.5%, beating expectations for an increase of 0.3%.