By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - The safe-haven crowd behind gold that had been losing its edge lately is suddenly looking in vogue again, thanks to President Donald Trump and his renewed war of words with China.
Gold futures for June delivery on New York’s COMEX settled up $12.40, or 0.7%, at $1,713.30 per ounce as U.S.-Sino tensions spiked again amid the blame laid by Trump on China for America’s Covid-19 crisis. Last week June gold futures lost 2%.
Spot gold, which tracks live trades in bullion, was up $6.45, or 0.4%, to $1,706.82 by 3:25 PM ET (19:25 GMT). It fell 1.7% last week.
Trump, who signed a trade deal with China’s President Xi Jinping in January, is mulling fresh tariffs now on Beijing.
The president told a virtual town hall on Fox News on Sunday night that China "made a mistake” over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, then tried to cover it up, depriving the world of early information in the fight against the crisis. His administration is looking for evidence that China might have created and spread the virus.
“There's some catch-up going on across much of the continent in the aftermath of Trump's comments on potential Chinese tariffs,” said Craig Erlam at New York-based OANDA. “Whatever is giving gold a boost today, a break of $1,750 and above will be meaningful, although $1,740 - the most recent peak - will be interesting as it could create some excitement.”
Gold’s final outcome for the week will, however, depend on the U.S. jobs report for April, which is due on Friday.
The market is expecting a loss of nearly 22 million jobs for last month. If the decline overshoots, gold could attempt the $1,750 test.