Gold rises

Gold edged up on Friday, after falling more than 2 percent to a two-week low overnight on concerns over a looming increase in US interest rates, but prices were still on track for their biggest weekly drop in two months.
Other precious metals steadied after Thursday´s slide, but silver extended losses after dropping as much as 7 percent.
For the month, however, gold is set to post its biggest gain in almost a year after a recent rally fuelled by the European Central Bank´s multi-billion euro bond-buying program.
Despite the threat of US monetary tightening, increased liquidity through the ECB´s stimulus should support gold going forward, said Victor Thianpiriya, analyst at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. Gold´s 2.2-percent drop overnight was its steepest since mid-December. Bullion has lost 2.6 percent so far this week. But it was still up 6.5 percent for January, on track for its largest monthly gain since February last year after touching a five-month high of $1,306.20 last week.