This morning, during Asian trade hours, gold future contracts rose. The yellow metal had fallen to a 5 ½ month low on Friday. Escalating trade war tensions between China and the United States sent traders into safe haven asset classes.
As of 1 am GMT, the popular spot gold contract, XAU/USD, was up. It rose 0.2 percent to trade at $1,281.41 per ounce. On Friday, the bullion was at its lowest level since December at $1,275.01 an ounce.
U.S. gold futures, for August delivery, also gained ground. They rose 0.4 percent to trade at $1,284.10 per ounce.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency in a basket of six other Forex majors, was also higher. The dollar gained 0.1 percent to 94.895.
Gold Traders watch escalating Trade War Tensions between China and the U.S.
President Donald Trump, on Friday, said he would go ahead with big tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods. This escalated the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. China vowed to respond in kind with its own tariff.
China initiate tariffs on U.S. goods with 25 percent taxes on 659 U.S. products. These goods are valued at $50 billion. This is its response to the American announcement of tariffs on Chinese imports. These were comments from the Chinese commerce ministry.
In other headlines, South Korea and the United States are expected to end, for now, “large-scale” military drills. They were scheduled for this week. They would start again if North Korea failed to denuclearize. This was in the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Syria’s official news media, citing a military source, reported that a U.S. aircraft bombed “one of our military positions.” This caused deaths and injuries. The U.S. has denied these attacks.