By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com – Gold prices fell a notch Friday but that didn’t stop the yellow metal from cruising to a fifth straight weekly gain, boosted by U.S. stimulus measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and surging new global infections. 

for August delivery on Comex settled down $1.90, or 0.1%, at $1,801.90 per ounce. The contract hit $1,829.80 on Wednesday, its highest since September 2011, when it scaled to a record $1,911.60.  1,787.60

was down $3.72, or 0.2%, at $1,799.83 by 3:45 PM ET (19:45 GMT). The real-time indicator of bullion prices scaled $1,809.22 earlier on Thursday, a peak since September 2011, when it hit a record high of $1,920.85.

For the week, August gold rose 0.8% while bullion gained 1.4%.

“Gold’s short-term outlook remains very bullish as tensions will likely increase next week between the world’s two largest economies, investors brace for large layoff announcements as banks kick off earnings season, and the COVID-19 spread in US and Latin America still do not show any signs of plateauing,” said Ed Moya, analyst at New York’s OANDA.

Record high daily U.S. coronavirus infections have cast doubts over the pace of economic reopenings from lockdowns, as well as the resumption of school in the fall.

Latin America and the Caribbean have become “a hot spot” for the COVID-19 pandemic, with several countries now having one of the highest per capita infection rates and absolute number of cases in the world, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. A 9.1% contraction in GDP was expected this year in the region, which would be the “largest in a century,” said a video and briefing report by the U.N. chief.