Investing.com — Gold prices fell slightly in Asian trade on Thursday, paring sharp declines from the previous session after Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 election triggered a rally in the dollar and risk assets. Expanded.
The yellow metal also hit a series of record highs in the run-up to the election and was hit by heavy profit-taking. However, despite recent losses, gold still retains most of its gains from last month.
By 11:37 pm ET (04:37 GMT), it was down slightly at $2,658.03 an ounce, with December maturities down 0.4% to $2,664.70 an ounce.
Gold is weighed down by the dollar's rise after Trump's victory
Spot gold prices fell more than 3% on Wednesday after Trump's victory sent them to a four-month high.
The early conclusion of the hotly contested presidential election has removed a key uncertainty for global financial markets, putting pressure on safe-haven assets such as gold, while triggering a rise in risk-on across the board. .
However, the yellow metal found a bottom on Thursday as uncertainty remained as President Trump said he would select his Cabinet. The president-elect has also vowed to raise trade tariffs on China, potentially sparking a renewed trade war between the world's largest economies.
President Trump is also expected to enact further inflationary policies during his term, which is likely to support interest rates and put pressure on non-yielding assets such as gold.
Thursday's focus was also on the central bank's widely expected Federal Reserve conclusions later in the day.
But markets were cautious about what the Fed might signal about future rate cuts, especially in the face of low inflation and President Trump's inauguration.
Other precious metals also fell on Thursday. Both metals continued their steep declines in recent trading, falling 0.6% to $988.40 an ounce and 0.9% to $31.035 an ounce.
Copper is doing well as imports from China remain steady
Among industrial metals, copper prices rose on Thursday, recovering some of their recent declines as Chinese trade data showed copper imports stabilized in October.
The benchmark price on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.3% to $9,444.50 a tonne, while December rose 1.4% to $4.2980 a tonne. Both contracts fell 4% to 5% on Wednesday as markets worried that President Trump's inauguration would increase economic headwinds for China.
China is the world's largest importer of copper, and concerns about slowing demand there have been a major weight on prices in recent months.
Still, data on Thursday showed China imported 506,000 tonnes of unrefined copper and copper products in October, up 1.1% from a year earlier.
