Gold Rises With US Interest-Rate Cuts and Tariff Agenda in Focus
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The precious metal was up 0.5% to near $3,366 an ounce after Fed Governor Christopher Waller advocated for a rate cut last week and Governor Michelle Bowman also expressed an openness to a reduction. Meanwhile, their colleagues remained more cautious due to the risk of persistent inflation triggered by tariffs. Lower borrowing costs tend to benefit gold as it doesn't pay interest.
The divergence comes as Trump keeps up the pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell — whose term as chair expires in May 2026 — with the White House evaluating candidates to succeed him and pledging to pick someone who will cut rates. The president also pushed back on a Wall Street Journal report that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advised him markets would react badly if he fired Powell.
On the trade front, European Union officials are set to meet as early as this week to formulate a plan to respond to a possible no-deal scenario with the US. Investors will be watching for progress on talks with a raft of trade partners ahead of Trump's Aug. 1 deadline for imposing so-called reciprocal tariffs.
Gold has climbed more than a quarter this year, with geopolitical tensions and concerns about dollar-denominated assets sparking flight to the haven asset. The precious metal has been trading within a tight range over the past few months, as investors wait for a clearer sense on global trade talks, the path for rate cuts and the impact of tariffs on the global economy.
Spot gold was up 0.5% at $3,368.35 an ounce as of 1:35 p.m. in Singapore. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index edged lower. Silver, platinum and palladium all rose.
--With assistance from Yihui Xie.
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Takeaways: US military enters gray area with expanded role at Mexico-US border
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Different jurisdictions, different laws In 2023, Illinois became the first state to completely eliminate cash bail when the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law abolishing it. The move was part of an expansive criminal justice overhaul adopted in 2021 known as the SAFE-T Act. Under the change, a judge decides whether to release the defendant prior to their trial, weighing factors such as their criminal charges, if they could pose any danger to others and if they are considered a flight risk. Loyola University of Chicago's Center for Criminal Justice published a 2024 report on Illinois' new cashless bail policy, one year after it went into effect. It acknowledges that there is not yet enough data to know what impact the law has had on crime, but that crime in Illinois did not increase after its implementation. Violent and property crime declined in some counties. 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