Metals Prices’ Wild Ride in August Set to End on Sour Note

Investing.com – Gold prices brushed off a sharp uptick in the dollar Friday, but remained on track to end the month roughly unchanged, while copper slumped on U.S.-China trade concerns.

for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by $0.21, or 0.50%, to $1,207.30 troy ounce.

Gold prices fell to a session low of $1,204.50 before pairing losses following a strong uptick in the dollar as investors looked ahead to another rate hike from the Federal Reserve in a little over three weeks.

The Federal Reserve is poised to raise rates at its meeting in September, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.

The , which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose by 0.240% to 95.02.

Gold is sensitive to moves higher in both bond yields and the U.S. dollar. A stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for holders of foreign currency, while a rise in U.S. rates lifts the opportunity cost of holding gold as it pays no interest.

The wider metals traded mostly lower, struggling to hold off a wave of selling pressure as weakness from dollar strength was exacerbated by fears of an escalating U.S.-China trade war amid a report President Donald Trump was looking to move ahead with tariffs on China.

Trump plans to move ahead with tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports as soon as a public-comment period concludes next week, Bloomberg reported, citing six people familiar with the matter.

Investors fear that further friction with the U.S. could throw China’s economy into a faster decline, hurting Beijing’s demand for commodities. A Chinese state planning official stoked fears of slowdown in China earlier this week, warning there were increasing risks to growth in the second half of the year.

fell 1.64% to $2.67 a pound, giving back their gains from a day earlier, while rose 0.12% at 2,461.50.

fell 0.56% to 2,119.75, while fell 3.70% to 12,815.50.

fell 0.16% to $14.57 a troy ounce, while gained 0.38% to $788.80.

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