Gold climbed to a new record high of $1122.80 in Asia, but then fell off for most of trade in London and New York, ending near its session low of $1102.70 with a loss of 0.8%.
The US Dollar index rose on risk aversion as disappointing sales figures from Wal-Mart sent the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P roughly 1% lower by the end of the day.
Treasuries fell after Thursday's 30-year bond auction saw a bid to cover of just 2.26 with a high yield of 4.469%.
The US Treasury's federal deficit hit a record for October at $176.4 billion, new data showed. Even higher than the $150 billion imbalance economists expected, it was the fifth largest monthly shortfall on record.
The deficit for the 2009 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30th, also set an all-time record in dollar terms of $1.42 trillion. That was $958 billion above the 2008 deficit, the previous record holder.
October was also the 13th consecutive month to record a deficit – another first.
Crude oil meantime fell on worries over demand after the Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories built 1.8 million barrels, gasoline inventories built 2.6 million barrels, and distillates rose 349,000 barrels.
Silver climbed as high as $17.75 an ounce in early Asian trade before it also fell back for most of London and US trade, ending near its session low of $17.177 with a loss of 1.4%.
The Gold Price in Euros remained at about €744.
Platinum lost $11 to $1349.50, and copper fell a couple of cents to about $2.94. Gold Mining and silver equities fell about 3% by late morning and remained near that level for the rest of the day.
Initial US jobless claims for last week came in lower than forecast at 502,000. Home-loan applications sank to a 9-year low on the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly index.
Friday at 08:30 EST brings US Import and Export Prices for October, plus the Trade Balance for September – expected at minus $31.8 billion.
At 09:55 comes Michigan Sentiment for November, expected at 71.0.
