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South African rand strengthens

ByVictoria

South Africa’s rand, stocks and government bonds strengthened on Friday, boosted by higher gold prices as worries over the United States’ worsening fiscal health sent investors into the safe-haven asset.

At 0929 GMT, the rand traded at 17.9150 against the dollar, 0.5% stronger than Thursday’s closing level.

Gold prices rose on Friday and were poised for their biggest weekly gain in more than a month, as a softer U.S. dollar and concerns over the country’s fiscal outlook boosted bullion’s safe-haven appeal.

Source – Reuters

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    Glencore has suspended production and declared force majeure on copper shipments from its Altonorte smelter in Chile due to an issue affecting the plant’s furnace, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, in a setback that comes just as traders and producers race to ship more metal to the U.S. ahead of tariffs.

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    China urges US to stop potential tariffs on copper

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    China urged the United States on Thursday to halt an investigation into potential new tariffs on copper imports to rebuild U.S. production of the critical metal, vowing to retaliate if Chinese entities got caught up in the levies.

    “We urge the U.S. side to withdraw its investigation as soon as possible,” He said.

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    Gold continues to climb, tariffs increase demand

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    Gold prices rose to a record high on Wednesday on safe-haven demand following U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats, while investors awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting.

    Spot gold surged to an all-time high of $2,946.85/oz earlier in the session and was last down 0.2% at $2,928.88 as the dollar crept higher as of 12:17 pm ET (1714 GMT).

    “We are in a state of unusual-heightened uncertainty… the catalyst is the tariffs and trade talks or threats that are going on around the world,” which is supporting the prices, said Paul Wong, market strategist at Sprott Asset Management.

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    Gold rose but weaker than expected: December report

    ByVictoria
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    Spot gold rose 0.5% to $2,663.79 per ounce, as of 9:55 a.m. ET (1455 GMT) and hit its highest since Dec. 13. U.S. gold futures gained 0.5% to $2,679.70.

    Weaker private payrolls “is contributing to gold’s move, because ultimately, weaker employment numbers imply that the economy has been weaker than many had expected,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.

    “The bigger factor will be U.S. nonfarm payrolls on Friday, the market is expecting a change of 163 (thousand); anything significantly above that will be negative for gold,” Melek said.

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