Gold rose for a sixth day, the longest advance in 10 months, as fading expectations for higher US rates hurt the dollar. Bullion for immediate delivery climbed 0.3% to $1,159.55 an ounce in London. The metal gained 3.7% this week, the most in a month, Bloomberg reported. “The most important factor playing on gold prices this week was weak data out of the US, which weighed on the dollar,” Thorsten Proettel, a commodities analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg said. The dollar’s retreat has been sparked by tepid US data, raising concern over the strength of the economy and damping expectations of further rate increases this year. Holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded products rose 0.3% to 1,547.8 metric tons as of Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That is the 14th consecutive rise and the longest run since December 2012. Traders now see a less than 50% chance of a rate increase this year, down from 93% at the start of the year.
