Gold down, but heads for best performance in 3 weeks

Gold prices fell today, Friday, ahead of the announcement of important US jobs data, but they are heading towards recording the best weekly performance in three weeks, with the weakness of the dollar due to expectations of slowing the pace of raising interest rates from the Federal Reserve (the US central bank).

By 0729 GMT, spot gold fell 0.2 percent to $1,799.80 an ounce, after reaching its highest level since August 10, at $1,804.46 an ounce earlier in the session.

According to Reuters, US gold futures fell 0.1 percent to $1,813.30 an ounce.

Gold prices increased by about 2.5 percent this week.

The dollar index held steady during Friday, but is on track to incur a weekly loss of about 1 percent, affected by expectations that US interest rates will reach their peak.

The decline of the dollar reduces the price of gold for buyers holding other currencies

Harish said. The head of commodity research at Geojit Financial Services said that there have been corrections in the dollar after the statements of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday, which supported the attractiveness of gold.

Powell said this week that it was time to slow down the rate hike. High interest rates maintained gold’s traditional position as a hedge against inflation this year

Investors are now awaiting the US non-farm payrolls data, which is due to be released at 1330 GMT.

As for other precious metals, there was little change in silver in spot transactions, reaching $22.77 an ounce.

Platinum fell 0.1% to $1,040.13, and palladium fell 0.5%, to $1,932.45 an ounce.