Gold near two weeks lows as dollar rebounds
Gold prices today held near two-week lows touched in the previous session as the dollar rebounded after cautious comments from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer stoked concerns over progress in U.S.-China trade talks.
Spot gold was down 0.1 percent at $1,318.06 per ounce as of 0132 GMT, after touching its lowest since Feb. 15 at 1316.43 in the previous session.
U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,321.40 an ounce.
The dollar held firm above a three-week low against major currencies.
The United States will need to maintain the threat of tariffs on Chinese goods for years even if Washington and Beijing strike a deal to end a costly tariff war, President Donald Trump’s chief trade negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Asian stocks slipped on Thursday after the cautious comments from Lighthizer.
The Federal Reserve will stop shrinking its $4 trillion balance sheet later this year, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, ending a process that investors say works at cross-purposes with the Fed’s current pause on interest-rate hikes.
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold another day of talks at their second summit in eight months on Thursday, after swapping compliments at a dinner but giving no sign of progress on the key issue of denuclearisation.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May won a two-week reprieve on Wednesday from British lawmakers, who postponed a threatened rebellion aimed at blocking a no-deal Brexit after she agreed to a possible delay to Britain’s departure from the European Union.
* India and Pakistan both said they shot down each other’s fighter jets on Wednesday, with Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a 1971 war, prompting world powers to urge restraint.
At least 8 tons of gold were removed from the Venezuelan central bank’s vaults last week, an opposition legislator and three government sources told Reuters, in the latest sign of President Nicolas Maduro’s desperation to raise hard currency amid tightening sanctions.
Indonesian authorities on Wednesday ramped up efforts to find 37 people feared buried by the collapse of an illegal gold mine on the island of Sulawesi that killed at least four people._Reuters