US-China tariff war steers gold through $3,200 per ounce

Rahul Paswan and Anjana Anil

Fri, Apr 11, 2025, 9:35 AM 2 min read

By Rahul Paswan and Anjana Anil

(Reuters) - Gold prices vaulted implicit the $3,200-per-ounce people for the archetypal clip connected Friday, arsenic intensifying U.S.-China commercialized tensions rattled planetary markets and drove investors into the metallic seen arsenic a refuge from uncertainty.

Spot golden deed a grounds of $3,245.28 per ounce connected Friday, having breached aggregate records already truthful acold this year.

Bullion has gained astir 23% since January owed to geopolitical uncertainties, cardinal slope request and accrued flows into gold-backed exchange-traded funds.

"It took 14 years for golden to emergence from $1,000/oz to $2,000/oz, but conscionable implicit a twelvemonth to surge from $2,000/oz to $3,000/oz," said Nitesh Shah, commodities strategist astatine WisdomTree. "A further $800/oz summation to surpass $4,000/oz nary longer seems far-fetched."

U.S. president Donald Trump's 90-day respite connected reciprocal tariffs did not see China. Instead, helium ratcheted up duties connected Chinese imports to an effectual 145% rate, prompting Beijing to assistance its tariffs connected U.S. goods to 125%.

Gold ETFs saw an inflow of 226.5 metric tons worthy $21.1 cardinal successful the archetypal quarter, the largest magnitude since the archetypal 4th of 2022, erstwhile markets were grappling with the consequences of Russia's penetration of Ukraine. [GOL/ETF]

"A operation of heightened planetary economical tensions, the hazard of stagflation – a operation of little employment, maturation and rising ostentation - a weaker dollar, will, proceed to enactment bullion," said Ole Hansen, caput of commodity strategy astatine Saxo Bank, successful a note.

The caller surge successful golden prices was besides driven by a driblet successful the dollar, trading adjacent a three-year low, making bullion a much charismatic concern for different currency holders. [USD/]

Last year, golden recorded its champion yearly show since 2010, partially owed to marketplace participants fleeing to the safe-haven plus owed to accrued geopolitical turmoil rising from the wars successful the Middle East and Europe.

"The driving forces are the aforesaid arsenic those that person been swirling astir the markets since December – continued governmental tension, notably astir the unpredictability implicit White House policy," StoneX expert Rhona O'Connell said.

Bullion logged its biggest quarterly emergence since September 1986 successful Q1 2025, and has already posted 23 all-time highs this year, among which 11 are supra the $3,000 level.

Analysts accidental U.S. Federal Reserve complaint chopped expectations volition support supporting gold.

(Reporting by Rahul Paswan and Anjana Anil successful Bengaluru; Editing by Pratima Desai and Alison Williams)