The price for an ounce of gold shed $7.90 -- 0.48 percent -- and settled at $1,606.10 Friday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Silver shed 45 cents, or 1.7 percent, and closed at $28.70 an ounce. The dollar index fell 0.59 percent to 82.38 on the International Exchange. Against the dollar, the euro was at $1.2988 from Thursday\'s $1.2899. Against the yen, the dollar was lower at 94.51 yen from 96.91 yen. The British pound rose to $1.5229 from $1.5172. The dollar fell to 1.023 Canadian dollars from 1.0249 Canadian.