Gold prices rose on Friday, heading for a second week of gains, taking advantage of the dollar’s weakness as the impact of the US Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes waned.
Which came in line with market expectations regarding monetary policy tightening.
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And by 7:30 (GMT), the yellow metal was traded in spot transactions at $ 1857.08 an ounce, an increase of $ 6.26, or 0.34 percent.
And US gold futures rose $7.3, or 0.38 percent, to $1,855.3 an ounce.
The precious metal is set to record a weekly gain of about 0.2 percent for the second week in a row.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) published the minutes of its monetary policy committee meeting.
which was held on 3 and 4 May, in which it was stated that all members of the committee were in favor of raising interest rates twice.
By half a percentage point each time, in June and July.
The minutes came in line with market expectations regarding the US Central Bank’s intentions to raise interest rates in an effort to curb the highest inflation rate in 40 years.
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Raising interest rates would reduce the attractiveness of gold, which is used as a hedge against inflation and does not generate a return.
But the dollar’s weakness and investors’ fear of an escalation of the Ukrainian crisis overcame factors related to inflation and interest rates.
On Friday, the dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six major competing currencies, fell 0.19 percent to 101.66 points.
The dollar is heading to record a weekly loss of more than one percent.
A weak dollar reduces the cost of gold to holders of other currencies.
