Gold topped $4,540 an ounce and silver rose above $75 an ounce as investors continued to seek safe havens amid U.S. military and economic pressure on Venezuela.
Meanwhile, oil prices fell more than 2% as markets awaited a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday to discuss proposals to end the war in Ukraine.
A cessation of hostilities could ease sanctions on Russian oil, raising concerns about overproduction.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down less than 0.1% at 48,710.97 on Friday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was down less than 0.1% at 6,929.94 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1% at 23,593.10.
The London, Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges had a holiday on Boxing Day.
WTI crude fell 2.8% to $56.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
The price of “Brent” crude oil on the London Stock Exchange decreased by 2.6% to 60.64 dollars per barrel.
There was no natural gas trading in the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) on Boxing Day.
The euro fell to $1.1784 to $1.1776 per euro on Friday, the British pound fell to $1.3501 to $1.3501 per pound on Friday, and the dollar rose to 156.50 yen to the dollar from 155.83 to the Japanese yen.
The euro fell against the British pound from 87.25 pence to 87.21 pence per euro.
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