Gold rose slightly Friday and prices were still set for their first weekly gain since mid-April as the dollar retreated from highs.
Spot gold rose 0.17% to $1,844.82 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures rose 0.12% to $1,843.5. Meanwhile, the dollar receded from two-decade highs amid mounting concerns over U.S. economic growth revived safe-haven demand.
Gold prices have climbed about 1.9% this week.
"Recession fears are now giving way to U.S. growth fears, and the latter is helping gold," said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, but said the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hike path and quantitative tightening would still be major down-drafts for gold.
As bullion yields no interest it can become less attractive to investors when short-term U.S. interest rates are hiked. It is, however, seen as a safe store of value during times of economic crisis.
The U.S. central bank will lift interest rates higher by the end of this year than anticipated just a month ago, keeping alive already-significant risks of a recession, a Reuters poll of economists found.
"It's been an exciting week, after the clear-out below $1,800 driven by higher real yields, it opened the door for long-term strategic buyers to step in front of a technical downtrend," Innes said.
Reflecting an uptick in demand, SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.66% to 1,056.18 tonnes on Thursday, following a recent streak of losses.
Spot silver slipped 0.66% to $21.75 per ounce, but it has gained about 3.5% this week.
Platinum dropped 1% to $952.75, and palladium fell 2.43% to $1,958.2.