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Ammon News - Gold prices fell on Friday as some investors booked profit after its recent rally where it hit a record high, although ongoing tensions in the Middle East helped limit the decline.

Spot gold eased 0.6% to $2,718.83 per ounce by 1014 GMT. Prices had hit an all-time high of $2,758.37 on Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday there was a real sense of urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution to end the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, while calling for the protection of civilians.

Elsewhere, opinion polls showed the race to the White House remains tight, with less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Next week, investors in non-yielding gold will be focused on the U.S. inflation and economic growth data for clues about the health of the economy, said Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at WisdomTree.

Spot gold is up 31.9% so far this year. According to LSEG Workspace data, this is going to be gold's largest annual growth since 1979 if it stays near these levels.

The precious metal's rally has, however, dented demand in the price-sensitive Asian physical markets with discounts rising in China and consumers in India buying less in volume terms.

Meanwhile, spot silver , which hit a 12-year-high of $34.87 earlier this week, fell 1.7% to $33.13 per ounce. Platinum lost 1.9% to $1,006.85.

Palladium dipped 0.8% to $1,147.98, putting aside concerns about exports from Russia, where Nornickel's production accounts for 40% of global mined output.

Spot palladium rose 9% on Thursday after Bloomberg News reported that the U.S. asked the Group of Seven allies to consider sanctions on Russian palladium and titanium, which triggered coverage of some short positions in palladium futures.

Reuters