Gold Prices Rise Supported by Dollar Decline and Interest Rate Cut Expectations
Global gold markets witnessed a surge during trading on Friday, as prices rose supported by the decline of the US dollar and weak labor market indicators in the United States, which bolstered investors' expectations that the central bank would cut interest rates soon.
Gold recorded a 0.4% increase in spot trading, reaching $3994.03 per ounce, while December gold futures rose by 0.3% to $4004.40 per ounce. Despite this positive performance, the precious metal is heading towards an estimated weekly loss of about 0.3%.
This performance comes at a time when gold has seen a cumulative decline of about 8% since it recorded its all-time high of $4381.21 on October 20th.
Analysts attribute this improvement to the decline of the dollar against a basket of major currencies, as investors focus on the weakness indicators shown by private sector reports regarding the US labor market. Data released on Thursday indicated that the US economy lost jobs in October, particularly in the government and retail sectors.
In a related context, silver rose by 0.7% in spot trading to $48.31 per ounce, while platinum fell by 0.4% to $1534.21, and palladium increased by 0.3% to $1379.33 per ounce.
