Gold prices were steady on Thursday as optimism surrounding a potential peace deal between the United States and Iran outweighed concerns about inflation stemming from rising oil prices and higher global interest rates.
Spot gold was steady at $4,543.96 an ounce by 01:04 GMT. The price of gold rose more than 1% on Wednesday after falling earlier in the day to its lowest level since March 30.
Gold futures in the United States for June delivery rose 0.2% to $4,545.50.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that negotiations with Iran were in their final stages, but he vowed to launch more attacks unless Iran agreed to a deal, adding that Washington might wait a few days to get the right answers from Tehran.
Iran warned against further attacks. The Revolutionary Guard said in a statement: If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time extend to areas far beyond the region.
U.S. Treasury yields and oil prices fell on Wednesday as hopes grew that the United States was nearing a deal with Iran to end the war in the Middle East, while major stock indexes rose.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting in April showed that the majority of monetary policymakers felt that tightening monetary policy as much as possible would likely be appropriate if inflation continued to remain above the central bank's target rate of 2%.
Federal Reserve officials also pointed out that the stable unemployment rate, along with job growth exceeding expectations over two months, indicate that the labor market remains strong and does not require interest rate cuts to support it.
SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.2% to 1,041.74 tonnes on Tuesday.
As for other precious metals, silver settled at $75.96 an ounce in spot trading, platinum lost 0.2% to $1,947.37, and palladium fell 0.1% to $1,368.75.
