Gold prices gained on Friday as reports that U.S. President Donald Trump was considering plans to impose tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports as soon as next week weighed on market sentiment.
Gold futures for December delivery was at a trading price of $1,211.5 per troy ounce, up by 0.6%, at 1:10AM ET (05:10 GMT) on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The precious metal remained on track to record their longest monthly losing streak since 2013 despite today’s gains.
“As $1,200 is always a psychological level, there will be some battle to regain that … It is going to be critical whether prices are going to close above or below that level today,” said Brian Lan, managing director at dealer GoldSilver Central in Singapore.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of other currencies, gained 0.04% to 94.68.
Gold prices have declined about 7.7% so far this year amid geopolitical events including global trade concerns and the recent Turkish lira crisis, with investors preferring the dollar as a safe-haven.
“We think that the spate of the more consequential news headlines we are seeing of late will likely force another dollar rally and conceivably pressure gold prices lower,” said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir. “We would therefore favour the short-side for the time being, especially going into the long Labor Day weekend in the U.S.”
