Investing.com — Gold prices rose in Asian trading Friday, extending overnight gains as more signs of a cooling U.S. labor market weighed on the dollar and Treasury yields, helping prices of the yellow metal.
Bullion prices are now set to end a two-week losing streak as safe haven demand also remains in play amid bets that Israel and Hamas will not reach a ceasefire deal. Reports of new US trade tariffs against China also led to some demand for safe havens.
rose 0.3% to $2,354.06 per ounce, while the June expiration rose 0.9% to $2,360.75 per ounce at 00:53 ET (04:53 GMT).
The gold price is heading for weekly gains, despite some hopes for interest rate cuts
Spot prices are expected to rise more than 2% this week – their first positive week in three. But they were still well below the record highs seen in late April.
The yellow metal rose on Thursday after data showed a bigger-than-expected rise in the weekly US price. The data came on the heels of a significantly softer-than-expected reading for April, reinforcing expectations that a cooling labor market will prompt the Fed to cut rates early.
Traders saw their expectations for a September rate cut increase slightly, with expectations currently almost 50% likely, the .
fell sharply on Thursday, as did the , taking into account stronger metal prices across the board.
rose 0.2% to $994.80 per ounce, while the price rose 1% to $28.657 per ounce. Both metals also rose 3% and 7.4% respectively this week.
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Copper prices are nearing a two-year high, but uncertainty in China is limiting gains
The weakness of the dollar also played a role in strong industrial metal prices. on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.5% to $10,013.50 per tonne, while it rose 0.6% to $4.6327 per pound.
Both contracts were close to recent two-year highs.
But further momentum in copper prices was halted by some mixed signals from top importer China.
While copper bulls applauded the country’s rollout of more supportive policies for the property market, data showing a decline in Chinese copper imports raised some doubts about how strong demand would remain in the world’s largest copper importer.
Reports on Friday indicated that the US is considering higher trade tariffs on China, which also hurt sentiment towards the country.
