President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the White House was “very busy” crafting its trade policy as the clock ticks down on his self-imposed August 1 deadline. At that point, America could fundamentally reshape the way it does business around the world.
Trump signed executive actions on Wednesday imposing a 50% tariff on Brazil, a 50% tariff on certain copper products and suspending a tax perk for all countries that allowed cheap packages to fly into the US duty-free.
Trump said the agreement, if completed, would include developing Pakistan’s oil reserves with a yet-to-be-named oil company.
Source – CNN
Gold futures reversed early losses to reach new all-time highs Tuesday, gaining for a third straight session on weaker U.S. bond yields and persistent trade and monetary policy uncertainty as investors continue to anxiously await President Trump’s August 1 tariff deadline.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell near two-week low, making non-yielding bullion more attractive.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he plans to meet his Chinese counterpart next week, suggesting a possible extension of an August 12 tariff deadline, but European Union diplomats hinted that the E.U. is looking at broader counter-measures against the U.S. as prospects for a trade agreement dwindle.
“Trade uncertainty is prompting some safe haven demand,” Kitco Metals senior analyst Jim Wyckoff wrote. “The U.S. has got several trade deals in the works and there’s rumors that the E.U. and the U.S. might not be able to come to an agreement or certainly are not anywhere close yet.”
Source – Seeking Alpha
“There is incredible demand for physical gold in New York markets,” said Peter Spina, president and founder of gold news and information provider GoldSeek.com., referring to it as a “physical gold rush.”
“Those who are caught short physical metal are looking around and seeing a window closing here,” he said. They’re “desperately seeking physical metal before the price could jump overnight.”
“Meeting a surge in demand will always stretch capacity, but London vaults have been working overtime to service this London-New York flow,”
Source – Market Watch
The platinum jewellery market decline now appears to have stabilised, with year-on-year growth of 5% estimated for 2024 and 2% year-on-year growth forecast for this year, when total platinum jewellery demand is expected to reach 1.98-million ounces, the organisation points out.
PGI points out that in most markets, platinum jewellery is 950 parts per thousand, compared with 18 ct gold which is 750.
Source – Mining Weekly
PGI – Personal guarantee insurance
Citi anticipates an eventual implementation of a 25% copper-specific tariff by the fourth quarter of 2025, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order initiating an investigation into U.S. copper imports, the bank said in a note on Wednesday.
Source – Reuters
Silver climbed as much as 3.1% to exceed $33 an ounce, while gold headed for a seventh weekly gain — the longest run since August 2020.
The president has already imposed 10% levies on Chinese goods and plans to slap 25% duties on all US steel and aluminum imports next month.
Spot silver rose 2.9% to $33.284 an ounce by 1:20 p.m. in London, taking this week’s gains to 4.6%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%. Gold, platinum and palladium were little changed.
Source – Bloomberg
