gold prices soared on friday as investors rushed into the perceived haven commodity after south africa announced a potentially highly contagious new covid strain december gold gcz22 gc00 soared 2460 or 14 to 180890 an ounce moving back above the psychologically important level of 1800 the settled up 50 cents or less than 01 at 178430 an ounce on wednesday ahead of the thanksgiving day holiday gold remains more than 2 lower for the week following some bruising sessions markets will also see a half day of trade onfriday following the thanksgiving break gold jumped as us stock futures and equities in asian and europe tumbled on news of the discovery of a new covid variant in south africa with a high level of mutations the b11529 variant has been detected in botswana travelers who visited south african in hong kong and a traveler who returned from malawi in israel the world health organization will hold an emergency meeting on friday to assess the variant which scientists still aren’t sure is more deadly or just more contagious a tumble for the dollar was creating a tailwind for dollarpegged assets such as gold with the ice dollar index dxy down 03 risk averse action was also sending us treasurys trading sharply higher “reducing the threat that earlier in the week that helped send gold crashing below 1835” noted steen jakobsen chief investment officer at saxo bank in a note to clients the yield on the 10year treasury tmubmusd10y tumbled 11 basis points to 1526 elsewhere december silver si00 rose 12 cents to 23525 an ounce while industrial metal december copper hg00 hgz21 slid 14 cents or 32 to 43185 january platinum plf22 bucked the weaker trend up 02 to 97770 an ounce but palladium for december delivery paz21 shed 2740 or 15 to finish 1883 an ounce