U.S.-China rising conflict drives gold up

Thursday saw gold’s climb in Asia in light of escalating tensions between U.S. and China, leading investors to subscribe to the yellow metal.

Gold Futures went up by 0.04% at $1,711.35 by 11:55 PM ET (4:55 AM GMT).

With the relationship between gold and stocks inversely proportional, the latter were mostly up on said trading day.

The National Security laws proposed by China for Hong Kong and Macau had made quite a stir, with Hong Kong seeing a resurgence of protests earlier this week.

In an interview on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had stated that Hong Kong no longer qualifies for a special status within U.S. law. This is seen as a threat to Hong Kong’s future as a financial capital.

The Trump administration will declare the country’s response to the laws by this week’s end as China promises to retaliate should the United States make any advances.

These could come in the form of economic and visa sanctions placed on entities who enact and uphold the law.

On Friday, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will sit as a discussant in an online discussion regarding the matter.

Investors are on the prowl for clues on more stimuli measures along with potential of negative interest rates.

A report by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday stipulated that U.S. businesses could carry on seeing economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak well into the middle of June.