Gold Set For Biggest Weekly Gain Since August On Oil Slide

(RTTNews) - Gold prices traded lower on Friday but were on course for their strongest weekly advance since August as softening crude oil prices helped ease inflation concerns.

Spot gold dipped 0.3 percent to $4,075 an ounce but was up more than 4 percent for the week. U.S. gold futures were down 0.8 percent at $4,083 an ounce.

The U.S. dollar was seeing some positive traction, drawing support from haven demand as investors try to get a sense of how much deeper the technology selloff can go.

A Wall Street rout wiped out roughly $2.5 billion in market value overnight as investors fret about tech valuations and whether substantial AI spending can generate sufficient returns.

Meanwhile, after two Federal Reserve officials supported modest and steady interest-rate increases to bring inflation back to 2 percent, traders now await the all-important U.S. October payrolls report later in the day for more clues on a possible rate hike in December.

Economists expect employment to increase by 62,000 jobs in October after an increase of 29,000 jobs in September. The unemployment rate is seen holding at 4.2 percent.

Brent crude futures were on track for a weekly loss of about 14 percent following the results of the U.S. midterm elections.

With Democrats securing a decisive victory and potentially limiting President Trump's support for the war against Iran, investors are pinning hopes that the conflict in the Middle East will not escalate.

U.S. President Trump said Iran could not do anything regarding its nuclear program without Washington's approval and that he would have to decide whether the U.S. should take further action against Tehran or accept the current situation.

As uncertainties persist, Trump is expected to take a final decision after meeting his national security advisers.

Iran has sent the U.S. a nuclear proposal via Qatar, to be discussed only after Washington meets Tehran's demands regarding its nuclear program, naval blockade of its ports, sanctions and frozen assets, Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official as saying on Thursday.