Haywood-1-1It was a good week for precious metals as April economic data from the U.S. failed to impress, while the U.S. dollar fell against other major currencies. While employment data was favourable, retail sales in particular were flat last month according to the Commerce Department on Wednesday, well below the 0.3% increase projected by economists surveyed by Action Economics, while the U.S. dollar fell to a 3-month low against the euro. Gold and silver saw a 3% and 6% gain respectively to finish at $1,225 and $17.5 per ounce. Meanwhile, platinum was up 2.26% following concerns over possible future strike action at South African platinum mines. The metal finished at $1,168 on Friday, while palladium was down marginally (↓0.7%) to finish at $794 per ounce. In contrast to the precious metals, base metals were mostly down with the exception of copper (↑0.4%) which finished at $2.91 per pound. Each of nickel (↓2.3%), lead (↓3.2%) and zinc (↓3.2%) finished at $6.32, $0.89 and $1.04 per pound respectively. UxC Broker Average Price (BAP) for uranium was down marginally, finishing at $35.69 per pound. Finally, the price of iron ore ceased its rise of recent weeks, with 62% CFR North China finishing at $61 per tonne, while WTI crude finished just shy of the $60 per barrel mark to finish at $59.69 per barrel

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