Gold rose again after posting its biggest one-day gain in 18 months, as confusion over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda drove investors to buy the precious metal as a haven.
Bullion climbed as much as 1.6% on Thursday and was trading less than US$50 short of last week’s all-time high. That’s after it closed up 3.3% on Wednesday in a whipsaw day for markets. The precious metal has also been supported by a weaker greenback.
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Gold’s initial surge in the previous session came after U.S. tariffs on around 60 trading parters kicked in, fuelling market upheavals and increasing worries about a global recession. Then Trump announced a 90-day pause to higher tariffs on 56 countries and the European Union, which will now be taxed at the 10% baseline rate.
“When you’re in a crisis and gold is selling off, that’s telling you you’ve got a liquidity problem,” Carlyle Group Inc.’s Jeff Currie told Bloomberg Television on Thursday. “Then boom, they came out with the reprieve, gold bounced back up which is telling you liquidity came back into the system,” he said.
Still, Trump also hiked duties on China to 125%, effective immediately, after Beijing announced plans to retaliate with an 84% tariff to start Thursday. Those moves are exacerbating concerns the world’s two biggest economies will become enmeshed in a crippling trade war.
Markets rallied after Trump’s tariff-pause announcement. U.S. stocks had their best day since the financial crisis, with the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%, after slumping to the fringe of a bear market in the past week.
The constant back-and-forth of the U.S. administration’s tariff plan has rocked the world, as investors scramble to find direction and certainty. That’s generally been supportive for gold, which is up 19% this year. The metal has also been bolstered by hopes for more U.S. Federal Reserve monetary easing and central-bank buying.
“We remain quite positive for gold,” Dominic Schnider, head of commodities and Asia Pacific currencies at UBS Global Wealth Management, said on Bloomberg Television. “The next step is going to be, at some point, the Fed coming in — and that gives the next leg up for gold.”
Spot gold gained 1.1% to $3,117.15 an ounce as of at 11:52 a.m. in London. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell for a second day. Silver and platinum were flat, while palladium was down.
With assistance from Clara Ferreira Marques and William Clowes.
Yihui Xie, Bloomberg News
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