Business
Gold holds near record high as trade war risks sour global sentiment
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was steady at $4,671.54 per ounce, as of 0118 GMT, after scaling an all-time high of $4,689.39 in the previous session.
* U.S. gold futures for February delivery climbed 1.8% to $4,676.80 per ounce.
* Spot silver fell 1.2% to $93.53 an ounce, after hitting a record high of $94.72 earlier in the session.
* Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures.
* The dollar retreated to its lowest level in a week after threats from the White House towards the European Union over the future of Greenland triggered a broad selloff across U.S. stocks and government bonds.
* Investors flocked to safe havens like gold, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, seeking refuge from trade war risks. They fear a return to the volatility of 2025’s trade war, which only eased when the sides reached tariff deals in the middle of the year.
* The International Monetary Fund again edged its 2026 global growth forecast higher on Monday as businesses and economies adapt to U.S. tariffs.
* China’s economy grew 5.0% last year, meeting the government’s target by seizing a record share of global demand for goods to offset weak domestic consumption, a strategy that blunted the impact of U.S. tariffs but is increasingly hard to sustain.
* China left benchmark loan prime rates unchanged on Tuesday for the eighth consecutive month in January, matching market expectations.
* The most consequential test of the Federal Reserve’s independence in more than a century of existence comes before the U.S. Supreme Court this week.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 1.01% to 1,085.67 metric tons on Friday.
* In other precious metals, spot platinum fell 0.6% to $2,359.45 per ounce, while palladium dropped 1.3% to $1,817.44.
