Spot gold is trading around $1585.55 an ounce, up by almost 2.7% for the week and a far cry from under $1500 a fortnight ago.

European stocks fell overnight as the Italian government paid record rates at its bond auction.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also downplayed the prospects of starting up a third round of quantitative easing yesterday - triggering more volatility.

However, the US Congress is approaching the August 2 deadline for raising the $US14.2 trillion debt ceiling.

If history serves as a guide, the ceiling will be raised which should inject more life into precious metals and other resource commodities.

London Metal Exchange cash copper closed at $9609.5 a tonne overnight - down just $34.50, or 0.4%, for the week.

LME cash nickel gained 1.34% for the week to an impressive $24,176/t overnight.

Investment bank Barclays recently said refined nickel was the only base metal in a market deficit.

Singapore Tapis crude is still holding ground, closing at $126.72 a barrel overnight.

This is up almost 2.2% from this week's lowest close on Tuesday, while on the chart it appears to be climbing towards last month's high of $128.90.

Gold Anomaly was another standout performer for this week on the back of a high-grade gold intersection at its Crater Mountain project, and more drilling announcements could be in the pipeline.