Bullion has hovered in a narrow range around $4,000 an ounce in recent weeks after losing 14% in the second quarter, its worst showing since 2013.
Gold was on track for the biggest weekly loss since early June as renewed hostilities in West Asia raised the odds that the US Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates to contain inflation.
Bullion edged higher on Friday to near $3,980 an ounce, but was down 3.4 per cent on the week so far. The US launched another wave of attacks on Iran on Thursday, following up on the prior night’s strikes that hit an oil tanker near the Islamic Republic’s main export terminal.
The dollar and bond yields pushed higher, weighing on gold that’s priced in the US currency. Oil held a big weekly advance.
The conflict, now in its fifth month, has driven up energy prices and fanned inflation risks. A growing chorus of Fed officials is expressing concern over high inflation and warning that the central bank might soon need to lift rates, creating headwinds for non-yielding bullion.
The slight bounce on Friday may be a reflection of dip-buying, but it’s too soon to call a turnaround in the market, said Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “Upside in gold requires oil prices to ease off further and hawkish rhetoric to dial down,” he added.
Bullion has hovered in a narrow range around $4,000 an ounce in recent weeks after losing 14 per cent in the second quarter, its worst showing since 2013.
Spot gold was up 0.2 per cent at $3,982.52 an ounce at 10:01 a.m. in Singapore after falling 2 per cent the previous session. Silver was 0.4 per cent lower at $55.31 an ounce. Platinum was down 0.6 per cent and palladium was 0.1 per cent lower. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the US currency, was flat.
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Published on July 17, 2026
