Precious Metals

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

Gold has outperformed the U.S. dollar and the S&P 500 by more than 6% across the 11 days when tariffs announcements dominated the news this year, according to J.P. Morgan.

Source – Seeking Alpha

Gold is on a tear, hitting a record high in New York on Monday at almost $3,150 an ounce to bring the rise this year to 19%.

Analysts at Bank of America think gold could hit $3,500 an ounce if demand increases by 10%.

“Uncertainty around Trump Administration trade policies could continue to push the dollar lower, further supporting gold prices near-term. In our view, a broad rebalancing of America’s twin deficits could be bullish gold too.”

Source – Markets Insider

Gold prices rallied above $3,100 per ounce for the first time on Monday, on course for its biggest quarterly gain in over 38 years, as global tariffs and geopolitical tensions push investors toward safe-haven bets.

“Trump’s unpredictable trade policy has been the key driver for gold so far in 2025, with prices up by more than 16% year-to-date, extending its momentum from 2024,” ING analysts said.

“We see uncertainty over trade and tariffs, along with central bank buying and inflows into ETF holdings continuing to buoy gold prices.”

Source – Seeking Alpha

Australia has not escaped the threat of increased tariffs on its exports to the U.S., but it does have one world-class industry which is reveling in commodity market confusion, gold.

Both Citi and RBC Capital Markets see the gold price continuing to rise while the Resources Department of the Australian Government is forecasting an increase in national output from 286 tons this year to 309 tons next year, cementing Australia’s position as the world’s third biggest gold producer after Russia and China.

Gold’s rise in U.S. dollars is magnified in Australia by the currency effect with an exchange current rate of US63 cents delivering an Australian gold price of A$4903/oz, a record which easily eclipses all earlier gold booms.

Source – Forbes