When nothing looks clear, just hold. That seems to be the guide for gold traders these days as the constant back-and-forth in U.S.-China trade negotiations continues to send signals, mostly conflicting, to the market.

Gold futures settled flat on Friday, while bullion dipped a tad after China’s President Xi Jinping said Beijing wanted a deal with the United States. But he said China will fight back if necessary against his counterpart President Donald Trump’s threat that Chinese imports will face more duties from Dec. 15 if a phase one agreement isn’t inked by then.

Trump, in latest comments, said a deal was “potentially very close.”

Gold futures for December delivery on New York’s COMEX settled at $1,463.60 per ounce, the same as Thursday.

Spot gold, which tracks live trades in bullion, was down 82 cents, or 0.1%, at $1,463.33 by 2:21 PM ET (19:21 GMT).

For the week, both benchmarks showed a modest declines of roughly 0.4%.

Source : Investing.com