gold prices advanced further on friday after settling at their highest level since august on thursday as expectations that the federal reserve might slow the pace of interestrate hikes in december have helped to boost the yellow metal and have weighed on the us dollar   gold futures for december gcz22 gc00 rose 810 or 05 to 1761 per ounce on comex around the highest level for an mostactive gold contract since august   silver futures siz22 si00 for december fell 19 cents or 09 to 2152 per ounce   palladium futures paz22 for december rose 3980 or 2 to 1994 per ounce while platinum futures plf23 for january rose 350 or 03 to 105880 per ounce   copper futures for december hgz22 rose 9 cents or 23 to 385 per pound gold rallied sharply on thursday as the dollar tumbled to a twomonth low largely driven by the us october consumerprice index data which has helped stoke expectations that the dollar may have reached its peak or at least is close to it “the nearterm outlook for gold has improved and a continued move towards 1800oz is very much a possibility as we can say the uptrends in both yields and the dollar have at least paused after this week’s big moves” according to the sevens report research the ice us dollar index dxy has fallen 1 to 10708