Gold Prices Continue Slide

Gold prices continued their downward trend in early Friday trading, following a 2% drop in the previous session. The decline comes as Brent crude oil climbed back above $100 per barrel, rekindling inflation fears and strengthening expectations of an aggressive U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike ahead of next week’s monetary policy meeting.
By 03:33 GMT, spot gold fell 0.4% to $4,030.09 per ounce, pulling back more than $130 from the two-week high reached on Wednesday. Meanwhile, U.S. gold futures for August delivery also dipped 0.4% to $4,033.20 per ounce.