Investing.com — Gold prices rose slightly in Asian trade on Tuesday, stabilizing after overnight losses as traders speculated on how tough trade tariffs President-elect Donald Trump plans will be. did.
Markets are also awaiting further clues on US interest rates from key inflation data released this week, with the dollar hovering near a two-year high in anticipation of the release. This trend has put pressure on gold and other precious metals.
By 11:17 pm ET (04:17 GMT), February expiry rose 0.2% to $2,684.85 an ounce.
The yellow metal has seen safe haven demand this week, but this has been largely offset by the continued recovery in .
Report says President Trump's trade tariffs may be implemented in stages
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Trump's team was preparing a plan to phase in trade tariffs in the coming months, but it was unclear whether the president-elect would follow through with the plan.
The plan includes monthly tariff hikes of 2% to 5%, giving the U.S. government more leverage in trade negotiations while also preventing a spike in inflation caused by tariffs.
Concerns over President Trump's tariffs had fueled some safe-haven demand for gold, especially ahead of the president's inauguration on January 20.
But this was largely offset by concerns that tariffs would also lead to higher inflation, keeping interest rates supported for an extended period of time.
President Trump has vowed to impose heavy import tariffs on his “day one” in office, with the promised 60% tariffs on China being his biggest concern.
Inflation data awaits further interest rate indicators
This week's focus will be on December inflation data released on Wednesday, which is expected to provide further clues on interest rates.
Sticky inflation and a strong labor market are expected to give the Federal Reserve more leeway to keep interest rates high, a trend that is less favorable for non-yielding assets such as gold and other metals. It's a bad omen.
The dollar rose to a two-year high this week on hopes of slowing interest rate cuts, putting further pressure on metal prices.
Other precious metals rose 0.3% to $972.90 per ounce, while remaining flat at $30.315 per ounce.
Among industrial metals, copper prices extended their gains on Tuesday, benefiting from continued expectations that demand in China, its biggest importer, will improve on the back of strong stimulus from the Chinese government.
The benchmark price on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.5% to $9,139.50 a tonne, while March rose 0.6% to $4.3518 a tonne.
Copper prices were also boosted this week by data showing China's red metal imports continued to show resilience, hitting a 13-month high in December.
