Gold prices recorded gains on Friday, surging for the sixth straight week
What’s happening: Gold prices recorded gains on Friday, surging for the sixth straight week.What happened: Rising trade concerns between the US and China resulted in investors flocking to the safe-haven asset.
Will Gold Continue to Climb
Investors also responded to disappointing nonfarm payrolls (NFP) data released by the US.Why it matters: US President Donald Trump reiterated his threat of new tariffs on China, while announcing a delay in tariffs on Mexico and Canada by a month. China responded by threatening retaliatory tariffs on US imports. Investors sought refuse in gold on fears of a trade war between
the world’s two largest economies.
Gold news today
The yellow metal has been benefiting from continued growth in China’s gold holdings as well as China’s program to allow insurance funds to make gold investments.Meanwhile, data from the Labor Department showed that the US economy created 143,000 jobs in January, down from 307,000 job adds in the previous month. The figure also came in much lower than market expectations of 170,000 job adds.The unemployment rate came in at 4%, versus market estimates of 4.1%. Average hourly earnings for all employees rose by 0.5% to $35.87 in January, the most since August 2024.While a weaker labour market should have increased the prospects of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, markets widely expect the US central bank to move with caution due to the uncertainties surrounding tariffs and their inflationary impact.Strength in the US dollar weighed on gold prices, as a higher greenback makes metals more expensive for foreign currency holders. The US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance versus a basket of major peers, rose around 0.4% to 108.10 on Friday.US gold futures gained 0.4% to close at $2,887.60 an ounce on Friday, recording. For the week, the yellow metal gained around 2%.
Gold now
In other metals trading, silver settled at $32.443, while platinum and palladium closed at $1,020.8 and $978.00, respectively.What to watch: Investors await the release of economic data on US consumer inflation expectations (2000 UAE Time) today. US consumer inflation expectations for the year ahead, which came in unchanged at 3% in December, are projected to increase to 3.1% in January.Markets will also continue monitoring Trump’s announcements related to tariffs.