Gold prices made weekly gains supported by the demand for the precious metal as a safe haven after the prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting borrowing costs next year cast a shadow over the dollar and Treasury bond yields.
Gold settled in spot transactions at 2035.88 dollars per ounce “ounce”, while it rose 1.6 percent during the week. US gold futures rose 0.3 per cent to 2050 dollars.
“The prospect of lower interest rates is pushing for a very bullish trend for gold,”said Kyle Roda, Financial Markets analyst at .
The US central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, and its Chairman Jerome Powell said that the historical tightening of monetary policy is probably over.
Low interest rates in the United States put pressure on the dollar and bond yields, which increases the attractiveness of non-yielding bullion. Among other precious metals, silver fell 0.2 percent to 24.08 dollars per ounce, while platinum climbed 0.1 percent to 958.87 dollars. Both metals also posted weekly gains.
Palladium fell 0.5 percent to 1096.86 dollars, but recorded its best weekly performance since March 2022 after rising this week so far 15.5 percent.
In addition, shares of precious metals companies in South Africa recorded their biggest rise since last March, after gold prices rose on world markets as a result of the Federal Reserve’s clear signal that the round of strong tightening of monetary policy is over.
