Gold near 1% gain on Tuesday with tariff taking control of markets

LONDON (March 3) Gold’s price (XAU/USD) stretches higher to around $2,915 at the time of writing on Tuesday after surging over 1% the prior day and set to surge another 1% this Tuesday. The recent upsurge came in after United States (US) President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that tariffs for Canada, Mexico and China were underway. Markets were still doubting on Monday if President Trump would still allow an extension to tariffs implementation based on the efforts the countries were making to meet the demands of the Trump administration. Little too late, it seemed, with President Trump going ahead with imposing the committed tariffs starting on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Canada and China have already pushed back on imposing unilateral tariffs from the US. A statement released by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office confirmed that Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs on US imports from Tuesday if US tariffs go into effect. “Canada will start with 25% tariffs on US imports worth C$30 billion from Tuesday,” read the statement, while tariffs on other C$125 billion of products will come into effect in 21 days. 

On the other hand, China’s Commerce Ministry announced early Tuesday that it would slap additional tariffs of up to 15% on imports of key farm products, including chicken, pork, soy and beef from the US. The Ministry said that the tariffs announced will take effect from March 10.

Amidst this tit-for-tat trade war, US yields are rolling off again. The US 10-year benchmark hit 4.11% on the downside in early Asian trading on Tuesday. A nearly five-month low, going back to levels not seen since mid-October. 

Daily digest market movers: Interest is back

• On the geopolitical front, a senior defense official said the US was pausing all military aid to Ukraine, Bloomberg reports. 
• After Monday’s turn of events, the CME Fedwatch tool is seeing the market's cry for a Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cut by June getting even bigger. The odds currently stand at 85.6%, with a minor 14.4% chance for rates to remain unchanged. 
•  A string of recent US data showing resurgent inflation and slowing activity is stoking fears the world’s biggest economy could be heading toward a period of stagflation, Reuters reports. 

FXStreet