Gold Price News: Gold Edges Higher to Pare Weekly Losses

Gold prices ticked higher on Friday, paring the previous day’s sharp losses, as the lower prices appeared to attract buyers back to the market.

Prices rose as high as $2,391 an ounce, compared with around $2,364 an ounce in late deals on Thursday.

Friday’s modest uptick represented a partial recovery of Thursday’s losses, which saw gold fall from a high of over $2,430 an ounce on Wednesday.

Both US price inflation and Michigan consumer sentiment figures came in Friday slightly above the market’s expectations, adding to the effect of Thursday’s US GDP figures which showed that the economy grew by an annualised 2.8% in the second quarter, up from 1.4% in Q1, and well above market expectations of 2%.

The stronger-than-expected economic signals would normally suggest less pressure on the US Fed to cut interest rates. However, the markets are now pricing in a 25-basis point cut in September and up to two further cuts before the end of the year, and the latest figures have done little to alter that outlook.

Thursday’s slump to a two-week low may have attracted a degree of bargain-hunting back into the market among short-term traders, giving gold a modest lift at the end of the week and paring the week-on-week losses.

Looking ahead to this week, Monday is looking light on macro data releases and the markets will be watching out for Tuesday’s Euro Area GDP growth figures for Q2, as well as individual data from France, Spain, Germany and Italy, as well as the US JOLTs job openings figures for June.