Gold prices wavered between losses and gains Monday, buoyed by heightened jitters about a potential trade war and uncertainty for the European Union following Italy’s divisive election, but pressured by a firmer U.S. dollar.
April gold GCJ8, -0.22% shed 50 cents, or less than 0.05%, to $1,322.90 an ounce after an earlier high near $1,329. The contract has been volatile considering that gold prices had settled at their lowest levels of the year just last Thursday, after recording the first monthly loss, in February, since October.
Yet gold futures settled with a sharp gain Friday, trimming the weekly loss to 0.5%, as the threat of a global trade war in the wake of U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs and potential retaliation pushed stocks and the dollar lower. U.S. stocks traded lower Monday, while the dollar index strengthened.
President Trump continued to tweet on the subject over the weekend, at one point threatening to slap a tariff on European autos, should the European Union try to retaliate to the new tariffs.
The trade-related market churning has underpinned a flight to the perceived safety for assets such as precious metals. Gold and silver also scored a fillip from buying from investors looking to hedge against rising prices that are typically associated with global trade tensions.
via MarketWatch
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Alfonso Esparza
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
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