Gold slipped and silver pared gains on Friday as the dollar strengthened against the yen, but both metals were still headed for weekly gains. The dollar rose about 1% against the yen on Friday, after Bloomberg reported that the Bank of Japan was considering applying negative rates to its lending program for financial institutions, CNBC reported. A stronger greenback makes the dollar-denominated precious metals expensive. Gold fell 0.3% to $1,244.80 an ounce, after hitting a five-week high of $1,270.10 an ounce on Thursday. Spot silver was up 0.4% at $17.065 an ounce, after earlier climbing as much as 1%.
