(Bloomberg) — Gold was headed for a third weekly gain, as hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the war in Iran and sustained buying by central banks outweighed persistent risks around inflation.<\/p>\n
Bullion steadied near $4,760 an ounce on Friday, on track for a weekly gain of almost 2%. With key issues around the Middle East conflict unresolved, attention is turning to weekend negotiations in Islamabad, where a US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to meet Iranian officials. Traders will also be watching the US inflation report later on Friday.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said he is \u201coptimistic\u201d about a deal to end the six-week conflict but later threatened Tehran over charging fees to let ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have also jeopardized a fragile ceasefire agreed earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Oil was on track for a weekly loss, while stocks have recovered and a gauge of the dollar has fallen 1.3% this week, supporting gold that\u2019s priced in the US currency. Since the war began at the end of February, however, bullion has still lost nearly 10%, with its haven appeal dulled by investors\u2019 need to cover losses elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The energy supply shock from the conflict has also raised inflationary risks, leading traders to place bets that central banks will delay interest-rate cuts or even raise them. This is a headwind for non-yielding gold, which benefits when borrowing costs are lower.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny prediction starts with a call on the war,\u201d said Kyle Rodda, an analyst from Capital.com based in Melbourne. \u201cIf the ceasefire holds and a peace deal gets done, and future inflation is contained, gold recovers,\u201d he said. \u201cIf things fall apart \u2014 which they could \u2014 then there\u2019s still significant downside risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
US consumer spending barely rose in February against a backdrop of persistent inflation even before the war began, a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed on Thursday. A more updated picture will emerge later Friday with the March consumer price index report. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the data to show the biggest monthly increase since June 2022.<\/p>\n
Countering bets on higher borrowing costs, however, a protracted war could also lead to a slowdown in growth that would hurt the labor market and warrant lower rates. Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee\u2019s March 17-18 meeting released this week showed officials wrestling with two-sided risks from the conflict.<\/p>\n
Gold has also been supported by signs that some of the world\u2019s biggest bullion buyers are continuing to build their stockpiles. Poland\u2019s central bank is maintaining a goal to lift reserves to 700 tons, its governor said, while China took advantage of lower prices to add about 5 tons in March \u2013 its biggest monthly purchase in more than a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — Gold was headed for a third weekly gain, as hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1877,114,13282,85,46,12521,121214],"class_list":{"0":"post-384505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-central-banks","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-president-donald-trump","14":"tag-vice-president-jd-vance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}