Investing.com – Anxiety over the U.S.-China trade war and Brexit is keeping gold’s $1,200 perch alive, even as the dollar tries to gain leverage against the yellow metal on the same concerns.
Skittish trading in U.S. stocks was also prompting bullion fans to stay with the precious metal as October’s rout in global equities, and gold’s surge to four-month highs, remains in their memory. The was 0.8% lower by 2:38 PM ET (19:38 GMT), giving back early gains as Apple (NASDAQ:) led a decline in tech stocks.
Gold also got a sentiment pop from the rebound in crude prices, which snapped a 12-day rout on Wednesday, the most prolonged selloff in oil history, traders said.
On the trade war front, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are to meet in two weeks at the G20 summit in Argentina to try and strike a deal to lower tariffs on roughly $360 billion worth of goods flowing between the two countries. But ahead of that, Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow and adviser Peter Navarro are at odds over the latter’s criticism of Wall Street for trying to influence the outcome of the talks.
On Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May won approval for a draft agreement on the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union after a five-hour meeting with her cabinet colleagues. But she also hinted at ministerial reservations to the landmark exit approved in 2016 by British voters, saying all would be explained in Thursday’s parliament session.
These concerns provided support for , pulling the yellow metal higher at Wednesday’s settlement after it waded in earlier trade to below the $1,200 level, just like on Tuesday.
Futures for December delivery settled up 8.70, or 0.7%, at $1,201.10 per troy ounce after running up to 1,215.40 earlier. The session low was $1,198.10 per ounce. Traders pegged the next resistance level for December gold at $1,212.
The , a measure for the greenback against six other currencies and a contrarian bet to gold, meanwhile, turned a tad lower on the day after nearing this week’s 16-month highs earlier in the session.
“The trade war and Brexit have also caused significant movements in other currencies that have given strength to the dollar lately,” said Walter Pehowich, executive vice-president at Dillon Gage Metals in Addison, Texas.
“There is so much news to decipher at this time, creating uncertainty in the market and that’s one thing investors don’t like to see,” Pehowich added.
Among other precious metals on COMEX, rose 1.3% to $14.13 per ounce, after earlier hitting $13.85, its lowest since Jan. 21, 2016.
rose 1.7 % to $1,110.70 per ounce, while sister metal declined 0.2% to $839.70.
In base metals, COMEX rose 0.7% to $2.705 per pound.
Source: Investing.com
