US president Donald Trump is pushing ahead to open up the economy which has been hamstrung by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"For me it's about lives & the future of our country!" he tweeted a short while ago.

No new countries reported COVID-19 in the past 24 hours according to the World Health Organisation yesterday, putting the number of confirmed cases globally at 2.24 million and deaths at 152,551.

Johns Hopkins University however puts the figures at 2.39 million and 164,938, respectively.

China's economy showed signs of a potential recovery last month as the COVID-19 outbreak seemed to be effectively contained, the World Gold Council's research manager Ray Jia said last week, however concerns for the pandemic on its domestic economy linger.

"Gold's investment demand in China kept elevating, sending Au(T+D)'s trading volumes in March to another all-time high and adding another 4.6t in Chinese gold-backed ETFs' holdings," he said.

The spot gold price has fallen below US$1,700 an ounce again and was earlier worth $1,683/oz.

Meanwhile, the World Gold Forum in Denver begins today as a virtual event due to the current market conditions and impact of the pandemic, including travel restrictions.

Among the market movers, Precipitate Gold (TSXV: PRG) closed 12.5% or C1.5c higher on Friday to 13.5c, after closing a C$1.4 million placement to Barrick Gold as part of the gold major's agreement last week to earn in to the Pueblo Grande gold-copper project in the Dominican Republic.

Barrick (TSX: ABX) closed down 2.4% while in London, precious metals miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) lost 2.9%.

Headed higher, copper major Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) gained 10% to close at US$8.34 on Friday, as it continues to recover from its March low of $4.82.