Gold Prices Head Higher as U.S.-China Trade Tensions Spark Safe Haven Demand

Investing.com – Gold prices traded higher in midmorning trade on Thursday as traders as worries over U.S.-China trade relations sparked demand for the safe haven asset.

At 10:54AM ET (14:54GMT), for August delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange inched up $8.50, or 0.7%, to $1,309.80 a troy ounce.

U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to on Thursday to decide whether to activate threatened tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese goods, a senior Trump administration official said.

China urged the U.S. on Thursday to make a “wise decision” on trade, saying it was ready to respond in case Washington chose confrontation.

Trump is due to unveil revisions to his initial tariff list targeting $50 billion of Chinese goods on Friday. People familiar with the revisions said that the list will be slightly smaller than the original, with some goods deleted and others added, particularly in the technology sector.

The world’s two largest economies have threatened each other with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs in recent months, leading to worries that Washington and Beijing may engage in a full-scale trade war that could damage global growth and roil markets.

Gold is generally sought out as a safe haven store of value in times of political and economic uncertainty

In other metals trading, gained 1.9% at $17.310 a troy ounce by 10:54AM ET (14:54GMT).

fell 0.3% to $1,003.90 an ounce, while sister metal rose 0.9% at $910.60.

In base metals, traded down 0.9% to $3.224 a pound.

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