Gold hovers near one-month peak as investors search for safety

Bengaluru — Gold prices held steady near one-month highs on Tuesday as an escalation in Sino-US trade war sent investors looking for safe-haven assets.

Spot gold was mostly steady at $1,298.48 as of 0255 GMT, after hitting $1,303.26, its highest since April 11.

US gold futures were down 0.2% at $1,299.20.

Asian shares extended losses on Tuesday, following sharp falls on the Wall Street overnight, the yen strengthened and US Treasury yields ticked lower after Beijing on Monday announced retaliatory tariff-hike to counter Washington.

“Gold is moving because people are looking to find a safe harbour in the storm while they wait for the dust to settle,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst, Asia Pacific at OANDA.

“Prices could further rise to $1,310-$1,312 if stock markets end lower. But, any sudden breakthroughs in the trade stand-off possibly could see investors stampeding for the exit as fast as they arrived.”

On Monday, the metal rose 1.1% to mark its biggest one-day percentage rise since February 19. Prices broke through multiple technical resistances, which had acted as a barrier for bullion despite the slump in global markets over the past week.

The biggest trigger for gold came on Monday after China announced that it would impose higher tariffs on a range of US goods, which followed Washington’s decision last week to hike its own levies on $200bn in Chinese imports.

In addition to more tariffs, traders are concerned that China, the largest foreign US creditor, may dump treasuries to counter the Trump administration’s hardening trade stance.