re: "It appears that someone (or perhaps a lot of 'someones') really do not want to be long into the weekend."
I'm hearing the same thing. At least one article credits concern about this weekend with driving up the price of gold.
Sooooo... what do THEY know that we don't know???
BTW, in the final few minutes of the trading day, gold's price is falling again.

Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months