Toronto Stock Exchange energy losses offset mining

Stocks recoiled on Wednesday, while safe-haven gold held near record highs as a nervous world awaited details of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans and investors fretted about the risks of an intensifying global trade war.

“Whatever’s announced today, I doubt very much will be the framework that’s in place in, say, nine months’ time because we know there’ll be negotiations around this,” Daiwa Capital economist Chris Scicluna said.

“It’s very difficult to predict with any confidence what the ultimate impact is going to be, whether broadly, economically, in terms of rates or in terms of stock markets,” he said.

“Investors are hoping for some clarity, and perhaps the start of the deal-making phase. But tariffs are already weighing on business sentiment, and this will probably feed through into lower global economic activity in the coming months,” said Ben Bennett, Asia-Pacific investment strategist at Legal & General Investment Management.

Source – Reuters

They have been working flat out to do what the Bank describes as “digging out” gold bars for delivery to traders who’ve seized on a rare arbitrage opportunity thrown up by speculation that Donald Trump will impose tariffs on the precious metal, alongside a raft of other imported goods. 

The Bank’s vault keepers are busier than they’ve been in years, logistics companies are working overtime, and refineries are booked out for months with orders to recast gold bars from London into a form that can be delivered into the US futures market.

“What’s happening in the London market is a short term logistical thing, but it’s having real consequences,” said John Reade, senior market strategist at the World Gold Council, the industry lobby group. “There’s not as much gold in London as normal, but again, there’s still lots there. And once it can get out from behind the Bank of England, then everything should calm down.”

Source – Bloomberg

Gold prices have fallen almost 10% from a record high just above $3,500 per ounce in April as a de-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions punctured momentum, but analysts are sticking with a bullish outlook due to strong underlying support for the metal.

Spot gold was trading around $3,180 an ounce on Friday, leaving prices on track for their worst week in six months.

“Gold prices are more likely to rise than to fall from this stage onwards as other factors like central bank demand and very strong investor demand from China are not going away anytime soon,” said Nitesh Shah, commodities strategist at WisdomTree.

Source – Reuters