Spot Gold off record high, heads for 5th weekly gain

Spot Gold pulled back from yesterday’s record high, but was set to register its fifth straight week of gains, as market players reassessed risk outlook following the US’ sweeping tariff measures.

This week, the Trump administration announced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher levies on a number of nations, including some of the US key trading partners.

The most substantial tariffs were aimed at China, as the country was hit with a cumulative 54% duty. Traditional allies were also targeted, as Japan confronted a 24% tariff, while the European Union faced a 20% levy.

Widespread apprehension regarding potential retaliatory actions from US trading partners has further exacerbated market volatility, with investors concerned about an impending global economic slowdown.

“Gold tends to rally amid difficult-to-price uncertainty – like the start of a war – but tends to lose that support once markets learn how to price the risks involved,” Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“The Trump administration seems to have picked a road, and while sentiment clearly doesn’t like it, at least the path of least resistance is more visible and easier to price. That is trimming some of gold’s “market confusion” premium.”

Investor focus now sets on the Non-Farm Payrolls report later today for more clues over the state of the economy and the Fed’s future rate cut path.

Employers in all sectors of the US economy, excluding farming, probably added 140,000 job positions in March, according to market consensus, following a job growth of 151,000 in February.

Spot Gold was last down 0.42% on the day to trade at $3,101.62 per troy ounce.

The precious metal has gained 0.53% so far this week.

Yesterday the commodity lost over 2% amid a broader market sell-off, having reached a fresh all-time high of $3,167.57 per troy ounce.