Gold is heading for its biggest weekly decline since February

Gold prices rose on Friday, but headed for their largest weekly decline in three and a half months, as hopes that negotiations would reach a solution to the US government debt ceiling crisis and fading expectations of interest rate cuts by the end of the year led to a decline in gold.

Spot gold increased 0.3% to $1,963.39 an ounce by 0418 GMT, but was heading for a weekly decline of 2.4%, the largest since early February.

Gold futures rose 0.2 percent to $1,964.60.

Ilya Spivak, head of the global macroeconomic unit at Testlife, said that the markets expect a positive end to the US government debt ceiling talks, as the new statements speak of progress, “and with Treasury yields and the dollar rising at the same time, gold will decline.”

The dollar index fell slightly on the day, but hovered near a two-month high, making gold more expensive for foreign investors.

Two Federal Reserve policymakers said US inflation did not appear to be declining fast enough for the US central bank to hold interest rate hikes on hold.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at an event later on Friday, and traders will be looking for any clues to the path of monetary policy.

As for other precious metals, the spot silver price rose 0.6 percent to $23.64 an ounce. The price of platinum rose 0.3 percent to $1,052.43. Palladium rose 1.5 percent to $1,474.63.