Mubasher: Gold prices surged at Friday’s settlement, gaining 2.3% for the week, as tensions rise in the Middle East.

Comex February gold soared $24.3, or 1.6%, to settle at $1,552.4 per ounce.

By 06:47 pm GMT, the US dollar index (DXY), which measures the US currency against a basket of six major currencies, inched down 0.01% to 96.83.

Yesterday, US air forces targeted Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, in an airstrike on a convoy at Baghdad airport