Gold Prices Pull Back on Profit-Taking (Update1)

Updated from 10:59 a.m. EDT with settlement prices

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Gold prices took a breather Friday as traders took some profits after a spectacular $30-plus sprint higher in the previous session.

Gold for December delivery dipped 10 cents to settle at $1,672.90 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price traded as high as $1,676.30 and as low as $1,665.10 an ounce, while the spot price was down $1.80, according to Kitco's gold index.

"We went from $1,615 to $1,670-something ... that's a pretty strong move, you're going to have some profit takers, you're going to have a few that are going to come in and short it," said David Banister, chief investment strategist at TheMarketTrendForecast.com.

Silver prices for September delivery rose 17 cents to settled at $30.62 an ounce, while the U.S. dollar index was gaining 0.27% to $81.59.

Thursday's rally was spurred the interpretation of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting, which were released late Wednesday, as telegraphing the central bank unleashing another round of stimulus at its next meeting in mid-September.

The next big event for Fed watchers though will be Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech at the economics symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo. at the end of this month.

Though analysts don't expect any major central bank policy changes to emerge from the summit -- the same venue where Bernanke laid the groundwork for QE2 in 2010 -- they acknowledge that the tone struck by Bernanke and his European Central Bank counterpart Mario Draghi will be critical for markets overall.

Platinum for October delivery settled lower by 50 cents to $1,554.40 an ounce to quell a week-long rally of the precious metal. Its surge came after South African police fired on a group of miners outside a Lonmin platinum mine in the country.

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