Precious metals steadied out after heavy falls earlier in the week, with the gold price holding just below $1,300 per ounce.
Gold was last $3 lower than the previous close of $1,293.10 per ounce, having traded as high as $1,334 per ounce this week. It is now on course for its second successive weekly loss - the last time this happened was in November 2013.
Friday's revised University of Michigan consumer sentiment index came out at 80.0, up from 79.9 the previous month but below the 80.6 forecast. This has potentially negative implications for the gold price.
Platinum was barely up on its Thursday close of $1,402 per ounce, at $1,403/$1,408 per ounce, while palladium made small gains on its previous close of $760 per ounce, last trading at $770/$776 per ounce.
Silver was last trading at $19.76/19.80 per ounce, not far above its Thursday closing price of $19.74 per ounce - though earlier in the day it had reached a high of $19.93 per ounce.