Gold Price News: Gold Edges Higher ahead of US-China Trade Talks

Gold prices rose slightly on Friday, capping a bullish week for the metal, albeit with prices down off their two-week high seen earlier in the week.

Prices rose as high as $3,348 an ounce on Friday, up from around $3,322 an ounce in late trades on Thursday.

The gains of around 1% came as two previous days of losses attracted buyers back into the market.

The markets remain cautious due to various geopolitical flashpoints that remain a cause of concern for riskier assets, maintaining interest in safe havens like gold.

That said, there was also cautious optimism in the wider financial markets after the US and UK agreed a trade deal last week, helping to ease concerns over a mounting global trade war.

US and China to talk trade

US President Donald Trump on Friday signalled he believes an 80% tariff on Chinese goods would be appropriate for America, sharply down from previous plans to impose levies of up to 145% on China. The comments come as the US and China were set to meet for trade discussions over the weekend.

Signs of efforts to find agreement on trade terms have helped calm market jitters over a global trade war that threatened to dent worldwide economic growth. This in turn has helped pull gold back from its all-time highs of just over $3,500 an ounce seen on April 22.

On the monetary policy front, the US Fed kept interest rates unchanged at 4.5% on Wednesday, while the Bank of England on Thursday cut rates by 25 basis points to 4.25%, both in line with market expectations.

Upcoming data

Looking ahead, the markets will be keeping an eye on the Euro Area ZEW economic sentiment figures for May on Tuesday, followed by US inflation figures for April later in the day, for any hints on potential monetary policy changes in June and July.