Yahoo Finance Gold Prices Gain; Trade Progress, Hong Kong Unrest in Focus
Investing.com - Gold prices gained on Wednesday in Asia as traders digested the latest trade news.
U.S. Gold Futures last traded at $1,462.05 by 1:05 AM (05:05 GMT), up 0.6%.
Trump said overnight at the Economic Club of New York that “no one has manipulated better or taken advantage of the United States more” since China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization in 2001.”
“I will not say the word ‘cheated,’ but nobody’s cheated better than China, I will say that,” the president said, threatening that the U.S. will “substantially” increase tariffs on China if no full trade deal is reached. However, he noted that the two sides were close to a “phase one” partial trade agreement.
“If we don’t make a deal, we’re going to substantially raise those tariffs,” he said. “They’re going to be raised very substantially. And that’s going to be true for other countries that mistreat us too.”
Analysts said Trump’s comments did not help the trade situation but may provide some support to the yellow metal.
“The downtrend (in gold) has paused. President Trump, on one hand, said the deal was closing and, on the other hand, said he will raise the tariffs if a deal is not reached,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in a CNBC report.
McCarthy added that the narrow trading range in gold reflected uncertainty, suggesting that the markets are starting to wonder whether a promised “phase one” agreement would be achieved.
In other news, political unrest in Hong Kong continued to receive some attention as police battled pro-democracy protesters at several university campuses in the city.
Several transport links, schools and many businesses are closed this week amid intensifying violence.
The news sent Hong Kong stocks down more than 4% so far this week, while the safe-haven gold gained.
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