Gold eyes second straight weekly gain as dollar falls

Gold prices rose on Friday, rebounding from the 1-week low that was hit yesterday, to head for the second straight weekly gain, as the US dollar fell against a basket of major currencies.

Gold prices rose 0.6% to $1,955.63 an ounce, after opening at $1,944.67, with a session-low of $1,943.98.

The yellow metal closed lower by 0.7% yesterday, posting the second daily loss in 3 days, and hit a 1-week low of $1,932.79.

Gold prices gained about 0.9% so far this week, to head for the second straight weekly gain.

The dollar index fell 0.1% today, to deepen its losses for the second day, which comes in favor of prices of gold and other dollar-denominated metals.

The greenback's drop came due to disappointing economic US data on the weekly jobless claims and on the housing sector during August, which offset the impact of the positive economic forecasts by the Federal Reserve.

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday held the interest rate between zero and 0.25%, and signaled that it plans to keep it near zero at least until the end of 2023 to help that the labor market to reach full employment, while putting up with the pressure resulting from the new inflation targeting strategy that will tolerate it above 2%.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell also stressed that the bank  expected the US economy to grow after projecting recession last June.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF fell 0.58 metric tonnes yesterday, with the total at the lowest level since July 29 of 1,246.99 metric tonnes.