(RTTNews) - Gold turned sharply lower on Friday and backed off a 10-week high. December gold closed at $859.00 an ounce, down $27.50 for the session. In electronic trading, gold hit $936.30, the precious metal's highest intraday mark since July 28. The metal's hedge appeal took a hit with the dollar on the rise. The dollar moved to its highest level in more than a year against both the euro and British pound amid ongoing fears world may be entering a prolonged recession. The greenback also surged higher against the loonie. Crude oil also plunged on demand concerns, further hurting gold's safety value. Light sweet crude fell to a yearly low of $77.28 a barrel as the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for global demand by 240,000 barrels a day. Despite Friday's sell-off, gold closed the week up $25 from last week's closing number. The decline took Christmas gold below its 10- and 20-day moving averages. On the economic front Friday, a Department of Commerce report showed that the trade deficit narrowed to $59.1 billion in August from a revised $61.3 billion in July. Economists had been expecting the trade deficit to narrow to $59.0 billion compared to the deficit of $62.2 billion originally reported for the previous month. Despite major efforts from governments around the globe to help shore up the troubled credit markets and boost confidence, this has been the worst week in the 112 year history of the Dow, which touched below 8,000 on Friday and remained down more than 5% in the afternoon. Copper prices continued to plunge, dropping another 27 cents to reach $2.14 a pound. The industrial metal hit $2.091, its lowest since March 2006. December silver fell to $10.60 an ounce, down $1.15 on the day. For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

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