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Gold hits over one-week low after US court blocks Trump's tariffs

Zawya4 days ago

Gold touched a more than one-week low on Thursday after a U.S. federal court blocked President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, dampening the metal's safe-haven allure, while a robust dollar further pressured the bullion.
Spot gold was down 0.7% at $3,268 an ounce, as of 0242 GMT, after hitting its lowest since May 20.
U.S. gold futures dropped 0.1% to $3,265.
A U.S. trade court on Wednesday halted the enforcement of Trump's tariffs, ruling the president exceeded his authority by imposing universal duties on imports from nations with a trade surplus with the United States.
"This was obviously the most important news driver and looking at the broad, dollar sort of rallied on that and obviously helped push gold lower," said Nicholas Frappell, global head of institutional markets at ABC Refinery.
On April 2, Trump had levied "reciprocal tariffs" on multiple countries, stoking fears of a global recession. However, many of those country-specific tariffs were paused a week later.
Following the trade court's ruling, the U.S. dollar index rallied making greenback-priced gold more expensive, with Wall Street futures and Asian equities also climbing.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration filed a notice of appeal, challenging the court's authority and signalling a potential escalation to the Supreme Court if necessary.
But the gold market is still bullish as "longer term outlook suggests a weaker dollar and there's still likely to be some inflationary pressures near term," Frappell said.
The minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's May 6-7 session showed that officials are concerned about the potential for concurrent rises in inflation and unemployment, a scenario that would necessitate a choice between implementing tighter monetary policy to combat inflation or lowering interest rates to support economic growth and employment.
The market now awaits U.S. GDP data due later in the day, with core U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures data for further cues on rate cut trajectory.
Elsewhere, spot silver rose 0.4% to $33.12 an ounce, platinum was steady at $1,075.50 and palladium edged 0.9% higher to $971.30.
(Reporting by Anmol Choubey and Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

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