Gold is on its way to the best week in two months

On Friday, gold prices were heading for their biggest weekly gain in nearly two months, as dollar weakness and hopes that the Federal Reserve would stop raising interest rates boosted the yellow metal’s appeal.

And gold prices stabilized in spot transactions at 1979.24 dollars an ounce by 0457 GMT. US gold futures contracts were little changed, recording $1,996.60.

Gold rose 1.7 percent this week, heading for its best week since the week ending April 7.

Gold market sentiment remains positive and prices could move slightly higher as the Federal Reserve is expected not to raise interest rates in June, said Edward Meir, metals analyst at Marix.

The dollar index fell to its lowest level in a week, making gold less expensive for buyers of other currencies.

As for other precious metals, spot silver fell 0.1 percent to $23.92 an ounce, but rose 2.7 percent during the week.

Platinum settled at $1,006.76, and palladium rose 0.3 percent to $1,399.02, and the two metals were on their way to incurring weekly losses.