NEW YORK/LONDON : An index of global shares traded lower while safe-haven gold hit a fresh record high on Friday, weighed down by worries over a looming trade war sparked by tariff decisions from U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. traders had new sticky inflation data to grumble about [.N] but it was Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on auto imports and plans for much broader levies next week that continued to cause the nail-biting.
On Wall Street, all three main indexes were losing ground and were on track for their third straight session of losses. The biggest losers were communication services, consumer discretionary, technology and financial equities. Utilities stocks were trading higher.
Europe’s STOXX 600 index finished down 0.77 per cent and ended the week down 1.39 per cent, helped by a nearly 1 per cent drop by the car and auto parts sector [.EU]
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 13.31 points, or 1.58 per cent, to 829.91. It is on track to end the week down 1.45 per cent.
State Street’s head of global macro strategy Michael Metcalfe said that U.S. car tariffs had been more aggressive than expected, especially as there had been no adjustments made for Washington’s neighbours like Mexico and Canada.
“What I don’t know is whether the hawkishness of the auto tariffs is going to translate to the broader tariffs that we are going to get next week,” Metcalfe said. “And that is keeping risk appetite on the back foot.”
Gold prices meanwhile set yet another new peak of $3,086.70 as the threat of trade wars drives a rush towards the safe-haven metal. It was last up 0.94 per cent to $3,084.90 an ounce [GOL/] For the quarter it is now up more than 17 per cent, which is its best quarterly performance since 1986.
