BENGALURU: Gold edged higher on Friday and was on track for its fourth successive weekly gain, as US stocks slipped and expectations rose that the US Federal Reserve might halt its monetary policy tightening cycle.

Spot gold was up 0.2 per cent at $1,289.31 an ounce by 1556 GMT.

US gold futures were up 0.2pc at $1,290.20.

US stocks fell at the open on Friday after rallying for the past five sessions.

“The fact that the equities are down slightly, heading into the weekend there is some flight to safety buying in gold,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.

Among other precious metals, palladium slipped 0.2pc to $1,319.74 an ounce, but was up about 1.2pc for the week. Platinum slipped 0.3pc to $817.20. Silver was up 0.5pc at $15.64 an ounce.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2019