On June 26 the UK Met Office recorded 37.3C in Suffolk, the third consecutive day that the country’s June high-temperature record has been broken. The heatwave also produced record highs on June 24 and 25; the previous official June record was 35.6C, set in 1957 and 1976.

After Thursday's US inflation print, bond traders trimmed bets on Fed hikes this year; the chance of a rate increase next month fell to about one-third. A tightening monetary-policy trend remains a headwind for gold, making it less attractive than yield-bearing assets such as Treasuries. Gold has largely priced the risk of further Fed tightening but has not priced a sustained higher-for-longer real-yields regime, said Invesco market strategist David Chao.

Lebanon's prime minister said the framework agreed with Israel aims to secure Israel's withdrawal from all Lebanese territory.