GOLD held on track for its 4th new week-end record price in a row on Friday as silver rose further and fellow industrial precious metal platinum also hit new multi-year highs, extending yesterday's sudden surge.

"[Thursday's] sharp move doesn't appear futures-driven [ie, speculative]," says a platinum and silver trading note from Chinese bank and London bullion clearers ICBC Standard, "unfolding during an illiquid market window [at the start of London bullion business] and following reports of new emission reduction plans in China.

"The rally seems tied to thin trading activity and the spill over from Chinese policy headlines, rather than action in EFPs or forward markets," ICBC adds, pointing to the lack of movement in New York 'exchange for physical' contracts or London borrowing costs.

Platinum prices rose again Friday to reach 12-year highs in US Dollars above $1540 and fresh 14-year highs in Chinese Yuan, Euros and UK Pounds above ¥345 per gram and €1330 and £1150 per ounce respectively.

Priced in Japanese Yen, platinum is challenging its all-time peak of early 2008 at ¥7500 per gram.

Silver meantime traded above $45 per Troy ounce on Friday morning, a price tag seen at London's benchmarking auction on only 7 days in history, and some 10.0% below the all-time $50 spot market highs of January 1980 and April 2011.

For Euro and UK investors, that put silver at new 45-year and all-time highs respectively above €38.50 and £33.70 per ounce going into Friday's midday London auction.

While gold priced in the Euro and UK Pound price haven't made a new London auction high since Tuesday, both touched fresh spot-market records on Wednesday and again on Thursday, peaking last night at €3224 and £2818 respectively.

"Market chatter" about yesterday's surge in white metal prices "points to a delayed response to China's push for green technologies," says ICBC, "in particular, the major expansion in wind, solar, and new energy vehicles, which has stoked demand expectations for platinum group metals and silver.

"With US PCE inflation data due Friday, traders are also eyeing softer inflation as a potential catalyst for lower rates, but yesterday's moves reflect physical market dynamics and the abrupt impact of China's latest promise" on solar and other green energy moves.

Inflation on the core PCE index, the US Fed's preferred measure of living costs, was revised higher on Thursday to 2.6% per year for the April-to-June quarter, and consensus forecasts for today's August data expected core PCE to show inflation of 2.9%.

That would mark the highest inflation since March 2024 outside of this February's peak near 3.0%.

"My view is that inflation remains too high while the labor market, though cooling, still remains largely in balance," said US central-bank voting member Jeffrey Schmid of the Dallas Fed yesterday, refuting the rate-slashing analysis from new Trump and White House advisor Stephen Miran.

"Heavy front-loading of cuts before you know whether this is all there's going to be on inflation and before you know whether this inflation is going to be persistent runs a risk of a mistake," agreed voting member Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee.

"Normally we think of a substantial drop in immigration as having an inflationary component, especially in a lot of services," Goolsbee added.

"The unemployment rate is low but has edged up," said Fed chair Jerome 'Too Late' Powell earlier this week, also rebuking Miran's analysis by saying that "inflation has risen recently and remains somewhat elevated."

But "we have a more fragile labor market than we were expecting to see," said voting member and fellow Trump appointee Michelle Bowman on Thursday, meaning "we may come to see" another two cuts of a quarter-point each before Christmas, in line with the Fed's average 'dot plot' projection in last week's update.

Gold prices in China today extended their discount to global quotes, suggesting weak demand in the 'safe haven' precious metal's No.1 consumer nation as the Dollar price in London traded around $3750 per Troy ounce.

Showing a weekly rise of 2.3%, that's $40 below Tuesday's new all-time gold price high.