(RTTNews) – Gold extended losses to touch its lowest level in almost two weeks on Wednesday as investors assessed conflicting signals on U.S.-Iran peace talks and increased bets on Federal Reserve rate hikes this year.
Spot gold fell a little over 1 percent to $4,067 an ounce as the dollar index climbed to a 13-month high due to rising bets on U.S. interest rate hikes.
A risk-off mood in global financial markets on concerns over artificial intelligence firms’ massive spending also boosted demand for the safe-haven dollar.
A wave of selling across global technology stocks has intensified fears that the artificial intelligence spending boom may not deliver the returns investors had anticipated.
Micron’s earnings, due later today after the U.S. closing bell, will be a key test for AI-driven memory demand.
On the geopolitical front, the U.S.-Iran peace agreement helped ease regional tensions, but disputes persist over whether Tehran had agreed to allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran are offering conflicting accounts of their fragile peace deal, raising doubts about its viability.
Trump has said that Iran had agreed to nuclear inspections into “infinity,” but Tehran said it had made no such concessions in negotiations.
The initial peace agreement between Washinton and Tehran has allowed traffic to flow again through the Strait of Hormuz, but Iran’s chief negotiator and parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has made it clear that the vital waterway, which typically handles one-fifth of global energy supply, will “never return to what it was before the war.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that no country is allowed to charge tolls in the Strait of Hormuz as part of any final agreement.
At the same time, Iran and Oman said they would examine charges for what they called maritime service fees in the Strait of Hormuz through a joint working group.
The U.S. and Iran also remain at odds over frozen assets and Israel’s parallel war against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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