“Gold falls for third session due to strength of dollar and bond yields”

(Reuters) – It is heading down for the third consecutive session on Friday, affected by the rise in bond yields and the dollar, but the yellow metal remained above the key level of 2000 amid expectations of a rate cut at the end of the year.

And by 1001 GMT, it fell 0.6 percent to $ 2003.08 an ounce, down 0.7 percent during the week. And US gold futures fell 0.7 percent to $ 2006.60.

Lukman Otunga, senior research analyst at FXTM, said gold’s losses were limited by concerns about the issue of the US debt ceiling and continued concerns about the country’s banking sector.

Gold tends to gain during times of economic or financial uncertainty as a safe haven, while low interest rates also increase demand for non-yielding assets.

Markets are now factoring in a 90 percent chance that the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) will keep interest rates at their current level in June.

As for other precious metals, it fell in spot transactions by 1.6 percent, to $ 23.78 an ounce. Platinum fell 1 percent to $1,082.59.

It rose 0.8 percent to $1,563.39.

(Prepared by Duaa Muhammad and Suha Jado for the Arabic Bulletin)