Gold price gains 1.50% after reciprocal tariffs are making a comeback

LONDON (April 24) Gold price (XAU/USD) recovers from a two-day decline and traders around $3,335 at the time of writing on Thursday after two days of firm selling pressure since it topped at $3,500 on Tuesday. United States (US) President Donald Trump released more comments from the Oval Office late Wednesday, signaling that China may receive a new tariff rate in the next “two to three weeks” while countries that are currently in the negotiation phase might see reciprocal tariffs come in if negotiations are not going the way Trump wants, Bloomberg reports. Meanwhile China has responded by saying it will not come to the negotiation table if first the tariffs are not lifted, before negotiations can even take place.

Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that President Trump’s earlier comments were not an offer to take down US tariffs on China on a unilateral basis. When asked if there was no unilateral offer from the president to de-escalate, Bessent said “not at all”, Bloomberg reports.  The Treasury Secretary said that the administration is looking at multiple factors, not just tariffs, but including non-tariff barriers and government subsidies for China. 

Daily digest market movers: China strong talks

• China has called on the US to “completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures” if it wants trade talks, the Financial Times reports on Thursday.
• The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has reported that its Gold holdings allowed the central bank to report a profit for the first quarter. The SNB notched up a gain of 6.7 billion Swiss Francs (CHF) from January through March, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday, Bloomberg reports.
• Gold futures in Shanghai followed the recent sell-off in Gold and priced the largest intraday drop since 2013. Chinese investors rushed to take profit on the assumption that a China-US trade deal was imminent after comments from US President Donald Trump on Tuesday and Wednesday. 
• Several trading firms are still signaling healthy buying taking place in Gold. “The temporary reprieve from Trump has fizzled out,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, a Singapore-based analyst at Philip Nova Pte. “Investors who missed the dip-buying wagon earlier in April drove the rise today.”, Bloomberg reports. 

FXStreet