(Reuters) – Gold costs surged to a report excessive on Thursday, as fears of a world commerce battle sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats fueled safe-haven demand for the dear steel.
Spot gold rose 0.1% to $2,936.38 an oz as of 02:36 p.m. ET (1936 GMT). It hit $2,954.69 earlier within the session — its tenth report excessive to date this yr.
U.S. gold futures settled 0.7% increased at $2,956.10. Bullion has gained about 12% to date this yr.
“Ongoing commerce tensions proceed to stoke inflation and development considerations and due to this fact safe-haven curiosity in gold,” mentioned Peter Grant, vice chairman and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals.
Trump mentioned on Wednesday he would announce tariffs associated to lumber, automobiles, semiconductors and prescribed drugs “over the subsequent month or sooner.”
Since taking workplace on January 20, Trump has imposed a ten% tariff on Chinese language imports and a 25% tariff on metal and aluminium.
“We proceed to see central financial institution shopping for … all year long. That is one of many predominant underlying elements of assist. We’re additionally seeing ETF flows with three straight days of flows into the gold market,” mentioned Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures.
Trump additionally denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a dictator on Wednesday and informed him he needed to transfer rapidly to safe peace or danger shedding his nation.
A possible peace deal could briefly decrease geopolitical tensions and will weigh on gold for the brief time period, mentioned Grant. “The all-time excessive may maintain for quite a lot of weeks however I believe the uptrend in the end continues as there are enough elementary elements that stay very supportive.”
Minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s final coverage assembly on Wednesday confirmed Trump’s preliminary coverage proposals had stoked considerations over rising inflation, reinforcing the central financial institution’s stance to carry off on additional fee cuts.
Gold exports from Switzerland rose year-on-year in January as provides to the U.S. soared to the very best in not less than 13 years, Swiss customs knowledge confirmed.
Spot silver added 0.6% at $32.92 an oz. Platinum rose 0.7% to $978.05, whereas palladium superior 1% to $978.02.
(Reporting by Anmol Choubey in Bengaluru; Modifying by Maju Samuel, Shilpi Majumdar and Alan Barona)
