Gold rose to near a one-month high on Friday and was headed for a seventh straight month of gains, supported ‌by geopolitical ⁠tensions after ⁠the United States and Iran extended nuclear talks, while softer U.S. Treasury yields further boosted bullion.

Spot gold was up 1% at $5,238.75 an ounce by 11:31 a.m. ET (1631 GMT), hitting its highest level since January 30. Prices climbed 7.6% so far in February.

U.S. gold futures for April delivery rose 1.1% to $5,254.

“There’s a lot of nervousness surrounding geopolitics, you have all the set-up for a high probability of a military operation over ⁠the weekend, ‌so it’s a risk-off in a flight to safety,” said Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures.

The United States and Iran made ⁠progress in Thursday’s nuclear talks, mediator Oman said, but hours of negotiations ended without a breakthrough that could avert possible U.S. strikes amid a major military buildup.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem also permitted non-emergency staff and families to leave Israel citing safety risks.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yields slipped to a three-month low, making non-yielding gold more attractive by lowering its opportunity cost. Gold’s next likely upside target is $5,450, with key support near $5,120, Streible said.

Data showed that U.S. producer ‌prices increased more than expected in January, suggesting inflation could pick up in the months ahead.

Markets are pricing in about a 42% chance of a 25-basis-point U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut ⁠in June, as per the CME FedWatch tool.

Elsewhere, top consumer China’s net gold imports via Hong Kong in January rose by 68.7% from December, Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department data showed.

China’s central bank moved to curb the yuan’s rise by removing risk-reserve rules for forex forwards, encouraging more dollar buying.

Spot silver rose 6% to $93.67 an ounce, on course for a 10.3% monthly gain.

Spot platinum climbed 3.5% to $2,352.05 an ounce while palladium was up 0.1% at $1,785.47. Both metals were headed for monthly gains.

Oil prices rose ​about 2% on Friday with traders bracing for supply disruptions as nuclear talks between the United States and Iran had yet to reach an agreement. Brent crude futures settled at $72.48 a barrel, up $1.73, or 2.45%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished at $67.02 a barrel, up $1.81, or 2.78%.

The two sides ‌agreed to extend ⁠indirect negotiations ⁠into next week but traders grew skeptical that an agreement between U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration and Iran was possible.

“The likelihood Iran is going to agree to what the Trump administration wants doesn’t seem possible,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group. “There’s got to be an endgame to this and the market seems to think that’s where we are headed.”

OIL BENCHMARKS ON TRACK FOR WEEKLY GAINS

The Brent and WTI benchmarks were trading at their highest since July and August, respectively, and were poised to register weekly gains well above ​1%.

“Uncertainty prevails, fear is pushing prices higher today,” said Tamas Varga, an oil ⁠analyst at ‌brokerage PVM. “It is completely driven by the outcome of the Iranian nuclear talks and possible military action the U.S. might take against Iran.” The United States and Iran held indirect talks in Geneva on Thursday after ⁠Trump ordered a military buildup in the region.
Oil prices gained more than a dollar a barrel during the talks, on media reports indicating that discussions had stalled over U.S. insistence on zero enrichment of uranium by Iran. However, prices eased after the Omani mediator said the two sides had made progress. They plan to resume negotiations with technical-level discussions scheduled next week in Vienna, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said on X.”We think the latest round of talks offers some hope on chances of a peaceful resolution, but military strikes are in no way out of the equation,” said DBS analyst Suvro Sarkar. Trump said on February 19 ‌that Iran must make a deal over its nuclear programme within 10 to 15 days or “really bad things” will happen.

Geopolitical risk premiums of $8 to $10 a barrel have been built into oil prices on fears that a conflict will disrupt Middle East supply through ⁠the Strait of Hormuz, where about 20% of global oil supply passes, Sarkar said. To cushion the impact from a possible strike, UAE oil producer Abu Dhabi is set to export more of its flagship Murban crude in April, two trade sources said on Friday. Earlier this week, other sources said Saudi Arabia would also increase oil production. Additionally, Saudi Arabia may raise its April crude price to Asia for the first time in five months due to higher demand from India to replace Russian supplies, potentially raising it by about $1 a barrel. Producer group OPEC+, meanwhile, is likely to consider raising oil output by 137,000 barrels per day for April at its March 1 meeting, sources said, after suspending production increases in the first quarter. (Reporting by Erwin Seba, Anna Hirtenstein, Florence Tan and Nicole Jao; Editing by Rod Nickel)

The Nifty IT index tumbled 19.5% in February, its worst monthly fall in 17 years since the nearly 21% drop in September 2008, as fears of an AI-led disruption rattled the sector.

The index declined in 12 out of 21 trading sessions, wiping out nearly Rs 5.7 lakh crore in market capitalisation during the month, according to data from the ET Intelligence Group.

Selling pressure intensified after Anthropic, a US-based artificial intelligence firm, unveiled its tools Claude Cowork and Claude Code, triggering a sell-off in technology services stocks across the US and India.

On Friday the Nifty IT index edged up 0.16% to 30,603.85, even as the benchmark Nifty fell 318 points, or 1.25%, to 25,178.65. The Nifty has declined 0.6% for the month.

Among individual stocks, Coforge, LTIMindtree, Tech Mahindra, Persistent Systems, and Infosys fell more than the index, dropping between 21% and 28%, with Coforge the worst hit. Oracle Financial Services declined the least, by 10.7%, followed by Wipro, while Tata Consultancy Services, Mphasis and HCL Technologies fell by 15–18%.

Sweetgreen’s SG -9.61%decrease; red down pointing triangle sales continued their fall despite price increases and a transformation plan to try to turn around dwindling traffic.

The salad restaurant chain on Thursday posted a loss of $49.7 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a loss of $29.0 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting a loss of 32 cents a share.

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Bihar government’s move to regulate microfinance institutions may hobble the recovery of the sector, which had shown signs of recovery from stress after long years.

The state’s legislative assembly adopted the Bihar Micro Finance Institutions (Regulations of Money Lending and Prevention of Coercive Actions) Bill, 2026, on Thursday, creating a sense of deja vu. The bill has a provision which prohibits borrowing from more than two lenders, while the microfinance industry currently allows a three-lender association for a single borrower.

Bihar, being the biggest microfinance market, may see a dip in repayment, people tracking the market said. The state accounts for 15% of the microfinance industry, while 13% of its borrowers have more than three lender associations, industry data showed.

The lenders are facing a risk of a sharp rise in delinquencies as they had seen in Karnataka, where portfolios at risk with over 30 days past due tripled to 12.5% within two quarters of Karnataka‘s microfinance bill, IIFL Capital Services said in a note. Borrowers with low per capita income and literacy may be more vulnerable, it said.

“Event risk like this makes us structurally cautious on lenders with high microfinance exposure apart from structurally lower growth/profitability vs previous cycle during ‘normal’ times,” IIFL Capital’s research analyst Viral Shah said.

Private banks and non-banking financial companies-microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) have grown their respective cumulative microfinance portfolios in January from December, after a phase of contraction, according to monthly data from credit bureau Equifax.
Now, the leaders of the sector will have to energise the field force all over again in Bihar to raise borrower engagement so that any fresh delay in repayment can be prevented. It was typically seen that borrowers tended to delay repayment when governments tried to regulate any sector. It was seen when states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu enacted laws to regulate microfinance.However, the negative impact was more pronounced in Karnataka than in Tamil Nadu.

“We expect Bihar to be headed the Tamil Nadu way,” a chief executive of a large NBFC-MFI said.

The microfinance self-regulators plan to carry out targeted awareness and outreach initiatives across Bihar to prevent erosion of asset quality.

The Microfinance Industry Network (MFIN) highlighted that the bill is directed at unregulated entities. However, the provisions in the bill relating to borrower protection and fair recovery practices apply to all lending entities.

“MFIN would like to caution microfinance borrowers not to fall prey to rumours, be regular in repayment to maintain a good credit record and contact their lender for information,” it said.

“It is noteworthy that RBI-regulated institutions, as on date, provide collateral-free and doorstep credit services to nearly one crore low-income clients with credit outstanding of ₹48,569 crore in Bihar, thereby playing an integral part in building an inclusive and prosperous Bihar,” MFIN said.

Mumbai Average lending rates on fresh rupee loans rose 39 basis points in January from a month earlier, latest central bank data showed, with the weighted average lending rate (WALR) increasing to 8.67%.

One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.

The rise from 8.28% in December was primarily driven by a 44-basis point increase in WALR by state-run banks to 8.05%, while private sector banks recorded an 18-basis point increase to 9.32%.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reduced its repo rate by 125 basis points to 5.25% over the course of 2025.

In contrast, the WALR on outstanding rupee loans of commercial banks declined marginally to 9.04% in January 2026 from 9.06% in December 2025.

The one-year median Marginal Cost of Funds-based Lending Rate (MCLR) increased to 8.45% in February 2026 from 8.40% in January 2026.
Meanwhile, the weighted average domestic term deposit rate (WADTDR) on fresh rupee term deposits stood at 5.66% in January 2026, slightly lower than 5.67% in December 2025. The WADTDR on outstanding rupee term deposits declined to 6.64% in January 2026 from 6.68% in the previous month.