Gold prices up amid Sino-U.S. trade uncertainty

Prices of the safe-haven Gold traded higher on Wednesday in Asia amid continuing uncertainty surrounding Sino-U.S. trade developments.

Gold futures for August delivery, traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, were up 0.3% at $1,335.75 per ounce by 1:15 AM ET (05:15 GMT).

Uncertainty surrounding Sino-U.S. trade relationships continued to provide support to the safe-haven metal.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would raise tariffs on Chinese imports further if he cannot make progress in trade talks with Xi at the G20 summit later this month. A Xi representative declined to confirm if the Chinese leader would meet Trump at the summit.

Overnight, Trump said he is holding up the trade deal with China and would not sign it unless Beijing returns to terms previously agreed earlier this year.

In other news, Trump took aim at the Federal Reserve again on Tuesday.

“The Fed Interest rate way too high, added to ridiculous quantitative tightening! They don’t have a clue!”’ said Trump in a tweet.

Trump then said in a separate tweet that the U.S. has low inflation, calling it “a beautiful thing.”

Traders will turn their focus to the Fed’s next policy meeting on June 18-19. While markets widely expect the central bank to keep rates unchanged next week, some expect it to cut rates before the end of this year as Fed Chair Jerome Powell has previously signalled the bank would “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion, with a strong labor market and inflation near our symmetric 2% objective.”

Expectations that the Fed might have to cut interest rates were also boosted after the release of May’s weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data.