Gold hits over one-week low after US court blocks Trump's tariffs
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 (.DXY), opens new tab 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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
23 minutes ago
- Times
What happened when we let Times readers bet $10,000 on stocks
If you could go back in time to the day of the 2024 US election — armed with $10,000 and everything you know now — how much money could you make in the stock market? That is the challenge we set Times readers last week. Buy and sell any stock in the S&P 500 or the FTSE 100 and jump forward in time, watching how the actions of the Trump administration have affected global markets. You can play it here. So, how did readers get on as stock market traders? The average player managed to turn their $10,000 investment into about $14,000 over the eight simulated months, meaning that they generated $4,000 profit — a return of 40 per cent. This is a pretty good return, even if readers knew exactly what would happen: $10,000 invested in the S&P 500 would have returned $10,787, and the same in the FTSE 100 would have resulted in $11,095 — although $10,000 in bitcoin, turning into $16,931, would have beaten the lot. Trump's tariffs resulted in a frenzy of trading, helping Barclays to a 23 per cent jump in pre-tax profits in the first half of the year. There are, of course, some objectively 'better' stocks to pick. The US AI firm Palantir, co-founded by the Trump ally Peter Thiel, has more than tripled its value since the election. Other US AI firms and computer chip manufacturers (such as Super Micro Computer Inc and Jabil Inc) have also experienced strong growth, as well as companies in AI adjacent sectors, particularly energy stocks such as the General Electrics power spin-off GE Vernova Inc, which has benefited from increased demand from AI data centres. • The cheap and easy way to invest (without the risk) A significant number of readers wisely put all their money into Palantir, yielding returns of 200 per cent. But the highest profits were for those who traded repeatedly at optimum times. Only two players turned their $10,000 into more than $100,000; at the time of writing, the top score was an eye-watering $441,681. The highest possible score, buying the best performing stock day after day, was well over a trillion dollars. Compounding returns, to paraphrase Albert Einstein, really are the eighth wonder of the world. For data privacy reasons, we don't know which stocks the top performer picked. However, on average, those who played did not opt for high-risk, high-reward US tech stocks. In fact, most readers put their money into recognisable UK companies that had a track record of doing well. Readers rightly focused on UK defence stocks such as Rolls-Royce, BAE and also Babcock, the best performing FTSE 100 company during the period. All those stocks boomed after Trump's realignment of global defence. • Bull or bear? Find out what kind of investor you are Other top performers picked out by readers included Airtel Africa, International Airlines Group (which owns British Airways) and the mining firm Fresnillo. For the FTSE at least, readers had a good sense of where the gains have been, with most of the ten best-performing stocks over the period being in the most-bought list. The above looks at which stocks had the most money invested. But the list of stocks that were bought and sold the most — that is, with the highest number of trades — shows a preference towards US growth firms. Top of this list is Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, and Elon Musk's Tesla, both of which have share prices inherently tied to unpredictable and volatile entities. Readers also explored options with oil and steel stocks. Due to tariff changes, these companies were particularly volatile. Many readers bought BP, others looked at Chevron or the US steel manufacturer Steel Dynamics. There were good profits to be had with all these, but you'd need to buy and sell at specific times to really make a good profit. • I want to invest in Europe's comeback. Where do I start? These lists also feature unexpected appearances from 3M, 3i Group, AES Corporation and APA Corporation. Theses companies didn't perform particularly well over the period and their inclusion is likely to be due to their names appearing at the top alphabetically, rather than being selected as part of a broader investment strategy.
Sky News
29 minutes ago
- Sky News
Trump-Putin summit: No deal reached to end war in Ukraine
No deal has been reached to end the war in Ukraine - but Donald Trump has said there are "many points" he and Vladimir Putin agreed on during their highly anticipated summit. Following the meeting in Alaska, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, the two leaders gave a short media conference giving little detail about what had been discussed, and without taking questions. Mr Trump described the meeting as "very productive" and said there were "many points that we agreed on... I would say a couple of big ones". 2:20 But there are a few left, he added. "Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there... "We haven't quite got there, we've made some headway. There's no deal until there's a deal." Mr Putin described the negotiations as "thorough and constructive" and said Russia was "seriously interested in putting an end" to the war in Ukraine. He also warned Europe not to "torpedo nascent progress". After much build-up to the summit - with the US president threatening "severe" consequences for Russia should it not go well - it was ultimately not clear whether the talks had produced meaningful steps towards a ceasefire in what has been the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years. Mr Trump said he intended to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, who were excluded from the discussions, to brief them. Despite not reaching any major breakthrough, the US leader ended his remarks with a thank you, and said he would probably see Mr Putin again "very soon". When the Russian president suggested that "next time" would be Moscow, he responded by saying he might face criticism, but "I could see it possibly happening". 2:10 The red carpet treatment The news conference came after a grand arrival at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, where the US president stepped down from Air Force One and later greeted his Russian counterpart with a handshake and smiles on a red carpet. Mr Putin even travelled alongside Mr Trump in the presidential limousine, nicknamed "The Beast". It was the kind of reception typically reserved for close US allies, belying the bloodshed and the suffering in the war. Before the talks, the two presidents ignored frantically-shouted questions from journalists - and Mr Putin appeared to frown when asked by one reporter if he would stop "killing civilians" in Ukraine, putting his hand to his ear as though to indicate he could not hear. 3:22 Our US correspondent Martha Kelner, on the ground in Alaska, said he was shouting "let's go" - apparently in reference to getting the reporters out of the room. 3:02 A '10/10' meeting During his first day back in the White House in January, Mr Trump had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine. But seven months later, after infamously berating Mr Zelenskyy during a meeting at the Oval Office in February, and then stanching the flow of some US military assistance to Kyiv, he still does not appear to have brought a pause to the conflict. In an interview with Fox News before leaving Alaska, Mr Trump described the meeting with Mr Putin as "warm" and gave it a "10/10", but declined to give details about what they discussed. He also insisted that the onus going forward could be on Mr Zelenskyy "to get it done", but said there would also be some involvement from European nations. 7:06 What happens next? Mr Trump is expected to speak to Mr Zelenskyy, Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders about the talks. A meeting of ambassadors from European countries has been scheduled for 8.30am UK time, EU presidency sources have told Sky News. European heads of state and Mr Trump are also likely to have a virtual meeting later in the day. Despite the US president's efforts to bring about a ceasefire, Russian attacks on Ukraine have only intensified in the past few months. On 9 July, Russia carried out its largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, launching more than 740 drones and missiles. Furthermore, Mr Zelenskyy has said Russia is preparing for new offensives.
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Putin was the real winner of the Alaska summit
Vladimir Putin couldn't stop smiling at the spectacle awaiting him in Anchorage yesterday, as American soldiers knelt to adjust a red carpet rolled out from his presidential plane. Donald Trump applauded as the Russian President walked towards him under the roar of fighter jets and stepped onto American soil for the first time in a decade. The pair shook hands for the cameras, ignoring a journalist who shouted, 'Mr Putin, will you stop killing civilians?' before riding off together in the presidential limo to the summit site. A royal reception, not a ceasefire, was what the international pariah had come out of his bunker for. After almost three hours of negotiations, Trump left Alaska with neither peace nor a deal. The lunch between the two delegations was cancelled. The brief press conference allowed no questions from the media. A seemingly energetic Putin gave an eight-minute speech on the history of Alaska while Trump stared blankly into the void. On Ukraine, Putin called it a 'brotherly nation', hypocritically claiming that 'everything that's happening is a tragedy for us, a terrible wound'. He then repeated the need to eliminate the 'root causes' of the war, signalling that Russia's demands for Ukraine's capitulation have not shifted. Yet there still seemed to be some sort of an agreement taking shape behind closed doors. Putin said he expected Kyiv and European capitals 'will perceive it constructively and won't throw a wrench in the works'. Trump said that 'many points were agreed' and announced later in a Fox News interview that now it was up to Volodymyr Zelensky to 'get it done'. Trump added that Ukraine would have to make territorial concessions, though Kyiv may not agree because Joe Biden 'handed out money like it was candy'. Asked what advice he would give to Zelensky, Trump said: 'Make a deal. Russia is a very big power. And they [the Ukrainians] are not.' Putin left the summit having achieved the goals he came for. He emerged from international isolation and was welcomed as a king rather than as an indicted war criminal. He left with plenty of photos alongside Trump for the Kremlin propaganda wing to talk about and contrast with pictures of Trump lecturing a humiliated Zelensky in the Oval Office in February. Russia also avoided further sanctions despite rejecting a ceasefire, with Trump promising once again that he might think about it in another 'two or three weeks'. As for Trump, he has nothing to show for the meeting except for being laughed at in Russia and at home. Had there been progress, he would already be boasting about it, but he knows too little about the conflict he is trying to fix, and the stick he carried was too short to make Putin care. The summit labelled 'Pursuing Peace' failed to achieve even a partial ceasefire. No trilateral meeting with Zelensky has been agreed. The war will grind on, soldiers will keep dying and Russia will continue bombing Ukrainian cities. All Trump has to offer is his refrain to Ukraine: make a deal – whatever that means.
