Gold and silver prices reversed course to advance in Asian trade on Friday, seeing some bargain buying after wild swings and outsized losses this week.

Silver remained the underperformer and was set to lose about 14% this week, after having largely wiped out a recent recovery.

Gold was set for a relatively smaller weekly decline, but was trading some $800 an ounce off record highs seen last week. 

Some cooling tensions between Iran and the U.S. weighed on safe haven-related buying in gold and silver, with the two countries set to hold talks in Oman later in the day.

Gold set for mild weekly decline after recovering from near 1-mth low

Spot gold fell 0.9% to $4,825.31/oz by 22:56 ET (03:56 GMT), while gold futures for April fell 1% to $4,842.44/oz. 

Spot gold was trading down about 0.9% this week, after largely failing to hold the $5,000/oz level. But the metal still managed to trade well above a near one-month low hit earlier in the week. 

"The selloff in the gold market was a little bit more contained due to greater liquidity and less aggressive positioning by investors," ANZ analysts wrote in a note. 

Silver heads for deep weekly loss as recovery falters 

Spot silver jumped 2.8% to $72.9655/oz, while silver futures fell 5.1% to $72.760/oz. 

Spot prices had tumbled as much as 16% on Thursday, although they managed to recover some ground by the end of the session. Still, the white metal was down about 14% this week after a nearly 18% wipeout from record highs last week. 

“We continue to reiterate that 70–90 region now represents a critical stabilisation zone; sustained failure to hold above this area may risk deeper correction towards USD 58/60 levels,” OCBC analysts said in a note. 

“But should prices hold up in this range, then bullish momentum may rebuild at some point later.” 

Other precious metals also remained under pressure, with spot platinum falling 1.8% to $1,953.17/oz. Spot platinum was down nearly 10% this week after a near 22% slide last week.

Metal markets marked an extended rout since last week, with initial losses triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chairman after Jerome Powell. 

Warsh was viewed as a less dovish pick, spurring a rebound in the dollar that pressured metal markets. The greenback was now headed for its best week since early-October, with soft labor market data doing little to deter the dollar’s advance.