Gold prices rose on Friday for their strongest week in six, as bets of an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve again moved into the center stage.
Spot gold gained 0.4% at $2,369 after hitting a more than two-week high earlier. Spot prices were up just over 2% last week.
Comex gold futures rose 1.14%, or more than $26 an ounce, to $2,366.90 after topping out around $2,385 an ounce in trading.
The Comex front-month price was up nearly 2.5% for the week.
The World Council said the Aussie dollar gold price ended that week around $3,575 after touching $3,587 earlier on Friday.
Data on Thursday showed that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased more than expected last week. The 231,000 people receiving benefits was the highest since last August.
"Gold has regained its mojo this week courtesy of some softer U.S. macro data. Initial jobless claims figures were worse than expected, which comes hot on the heels of the weaker NFP (nonfarm payrolls) figures last Friday, indicating that the jobs market may be starting to loosen up," said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, told Reuters.
The US producer price index and consumer price index data are due this week and will be the biggest influences on the metal.
The inflation reports have the potential to shift the needle with regards to the expected rate-cutting timeline. If inflation is shown to be edging lower, gold could be a beneficiary, Waterer added.
Comex copper added 1.65% on Friday to end at $4.65 a pound in New York. That left copper up 1.8% for the week.
