Gold eyes fifth straight weekly rise
Silver price is set to outperform gold ANZ
Platinum, palladium down for the week

April 19 Reuters Gold prices rose on Friday and were poised for a fifth straight weekly gain as investors flocked towards the safehaven asset as the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict.

Spot gold was up 0.3 at 2,385.22 per ounce, as of 0902 GMT, after hitting the session39;s high of 2,417.59. Prices hit an alltime high of 2,431.29 last week.

U.S. gold futures steadied at 2,397.60.

Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil, sources said, days after Iran launched an assault on Israel in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria. Iran, however, played down the incident and said it did not plan a new response.

The geopolitical situation with retaliation of Iran and the latest attack in the Iranian state has raised the risk that the conflict will escalate and is helping safehaven gold, said Quantitative Commodity Research analyst Peter Fertig.

Meanwhile, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers have coalesced around the idea that there is no urgency to cut rates, given the slow progress on inflation and a resilient U.S. economy.

Commerzbank said in a note that it expects gold to end the year at 2,300 compared with 2,200 previously, although it remains sceptical about the further upside potential as gold39;s rise runs counter to the trend in U.S. interest rate expectations.

Higher…