Gold inches up to one-week high amid trade tensions

Gold rose to a one-week high early on Wednesday, rebounding from a seven-month low touched in the previous session, as the dollar weakened against the yen and an end-of-week deadline loomed for U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.

Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $1,257.51 an ounce as of 0058 GMT. It touched a one-week high of $1,257.63 earlier in the session. The metal fell to $1,237.32, its lowest since Dec. 12, in the previous session.

U.S. gold futures were 0.4 percent higher at $1,258.70 an ounce.

The dollar was down 0.2 percent against the yen at 110.3.

China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said.

China’s leaders are confident the country can cope with major and external risks, they said at a high-level internal financial meeting, amid financial turbulence at home and rising trade tensions with the United States.

China’s central bank moved to calm jittery financial markets on Tuesday after the yuan dropped through the psychologically significant 6.7 to the dollar mark, hitting its lowest in almost a year as anxieties over U.S. trade frictions deepened.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Mexico on July 13 to meet President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and discuss immigration, trade, security and development, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday.

New orders for U.S.-made goods unexpectedly rose in May, pointing to a strengthening manufacturing sector, but business spending on equipment appeared to have slowed further in the second quarter.

The Bank of Japan is likely to cut its price growth forecasts at a policy meeting later this month as long-term inflation expectations stall, sources said, highlighting the bank’s difficulty in hitting its elusive price target.

The European Central Bank’s chief economist said on Tuesday he was confident inflation in the euro zone would continue accelerating towards the ECB’s target of just under 2 percent even after the end of its massive bond purchases.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund fell 0.73 percent to 803.42 tonnes on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters

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