Gold prices fell in Asian trade on Friday, reflecting some improvement in risk appetite after comments from the White House suggested that a U.S. strike on Iran, over the Israel conflict, was not imminent.
The yellow metal remained on the backfoot following hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve earlier this week, which buoyed the dollar.
While the dollar did pull back slightly on Friday, it was set for weekly gains. Strength in the dollar also cut short a recent rally in platinum prices, which saw the white metal hit an over four-year high.
Spot gold fell 0.5% to $3,353.17 an ounce, while gold futures for August slid 1.1% to $3,369.40/oz by 00:58 ET (04:58 GMT).
Gold hit by improving risk appetite; Trump postpones Iran decision by ‘two weeks’
Losses in gold came amid some gains in risk-driven markets, after the White House signaled that President Donald Trump will only decide on whether to join the Israel-Iran conflict in two weeks.
The move helped clear some market concerns that a U.S. attack on Iran was imminent, especially after a host of reports suggested as much earlier this week.
But Trump’s “two weeks” timeline still left markets in the lurch, given that the president has repeatedly used the unit of time for several major key policy decisions in the past, only to delay them indefinitely.
Trump was eight weeks ago asked if he could trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, to which he had also responded with his “two weeks” deadline.
