Khaberni - Gold prices increased on Thursday after climbing more than 2% the previous day, as ongoing geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran increased demand for safe havens, while investors assess the Federal Reserve's (the U.S. central bank) monetary policy direction.
Gold rose in spot transactions by 0.5% to $5004.47 per ounce.
The U.S. futures contracts for gold delivery in April rose by 0.3 percent to $5025.10.
The White House said on Wednesday that some progress had been made during this week's talks with Iran in Geneva, but there is still a distance between the two sides on some issues, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any new U.S. strike on Iran would have serious consequences.
The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s meeting in January revealed that policymakers agreed almost unanimously to keep interest rates unchanged, but remained divided on their next steps, with many prepared to raise rates if inflation remains high, while others leaned towards supporting further cuts if inflation falls.
Gold, which does not yield interest, usually performs well in times of low interest rates.
For other precious metals, silver rose in spot transactions by 1.5% to $78.36 per ounce after climbing more than 5% on Wednesday.
Platinum rose in spot transactions by 0.7% to $2084.71 per ounce, and palladium increased by 0.4% to $1722.94.
