BENGALURU: Gold declined on Friday and was headed for a second straight weekly loss, as the Israel-Iran ceasefire deal and progress on a US-China trade agreement dampened safe haven demand, while investors awaited the US inflation data.

Spot gold slipped 1.2 percent to $3,288.55 per ounce as of 9:43 a.m. Saudi time. Bullion has lost 2.3 percent this week.

US gold futures fell 1.4 percent to $3,300.40.

“The market is looking quite optimistic for the risky assets, so that’s weighing on gold prices,” said ANZ Commodity Strategist Soni Kumari.

De-escalation in the Middle East after the ceasefire and the progress in US-China trade talks are diminishing uncertainty from the market, sending prices further down, Kumari added.

Iranians and Israelis have welcomed a return to normal life after 12 days of the most intense confrontation ever between the countries and a ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the US has reached an agreement with China on how to expedite rare earth shipments to the US, a White House official said on Thursday, amid efforts to end a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

Investors are awaiting the US Core Personal Consumption Expenditure data at 3:30 p.m. Saudi time for further insight into the Federal Reserve’s policy path, with analysts polled by Reuters forecasting a 0.1 percent monthly increase and a 2.6 percent annual rise.

Markets are currently pricing in a 63-basis-point rate cut this year, starting September.

US President Donald Trump says that tame inflation means the Fed should already be reducing its policy rate, but only two Fed policymakers to date have embraced the possibility of a rate cut at the central bank’s July meeting.

Spot silver fell 0.5 percent to $36.44 per ounce and platinum lost 2.8 percent to $1,378.18, after hitting its highest in nearly 11 years. Palladium gained 0.3 percent to $1,135.36, the highest since October 2024.

ATHENS: Greek firefighters said Friday that a forest blaze that had forced evacuations around Athens was under control, but warned that scorching temperatures were keeping fire risk at a highly elevated level around the capital and on northern Aegean islands.
Greece has become particularly vulnerable in recent years to fires in the summer fueled by strong winds, drought and high temperatures linked to climate change.
The fire around Athens broke on Thursday afternoon near the towns of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Athens, and forced the evacuation of five villages popular with local and foreign tourists.
Though it was under control on Friday, a volatile combination of high temperatures and strong winds meant that a high risk of other fires breaking out remained, especially in the Attica region around the Greek capital and some islands in the north Aegean Sea, authorities said.
A spokesman for the fire service told AFP that over 100 firefighters with 37 vehicles and a helicopter were on standby near Palaia Fokaia and Thymari.
Fields, olive groves and some houses were ravaged by the blaze.
The blaze came on the heels of another fire on the island of Chios — Greece’s fifth-largest island — which had destroyed more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land in four days.
Weather agencies forecast a heatwave in the coming days with temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), including in the capital Athens.