July 04, 2018

Gold prices rise to one-week high as softer U.S. dollar supports buying

(Reuters) - Gold prices rose to a one-week high early on Wednesday, rebounding from a seven-month low touched in the previous session, as the dollar softened, stoking some demand for the yellow metal.

    Spot gold  was up 0.3 percent at $1,256.23 an ounce as of 0430 GMT. It earlier rose to as high as $1,260.43, a one-week

high. The yellow metal fell to its lowest since Dec. 12 at $1,237.32 in the previous session.

    U.S. gold futures  for August delivery were 0.4 percent higher at $1,258.10 an ounce.

    "Today, there's very little happening ahead of the fourth of July holiday, but we are seeing some significant U.S. dollar

weakness come across the board against other currencies," a Sydney-based trader said.

    The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1 percent

at 94.536.

    A weaker greenback supports bullion as the dollar-priced commodity becomes less expensive for investors holding other

currencies.

    Meanwhile, Asian stocks were on shaky ground on Wednesday as the spectre of a Sino-U.S. trade war haunted investors ahead of an July 6 deadline for U.S. tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports. 

    "Since the trade wars have been doing the rounds, if anything we've seen gold come lower. But if it continues to

escalate gold could go only one way and that's higher," the trader said.

    China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump's trade

policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said. 

    Investors are also awaiting minutes of the June U.S. Federal Reserve meeting which is due on Thursday and the U.S. non-farm

payrolls data on Friday.

    "Gold now has the potential to move back up to the $1,300 level, given market expectations appear to be becoming less

hawkish on the interest rate outlook," said Alasdair Macleod, head of research with Toronto-based Goldmoney Inc.

    Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund fell 0.73 percent to 803.42

tonnes on Tuesday. 

    In other precious metals, silver was up 0.1 percent to $16.04 an ounce and palladium gained 0.6 percent to

$945 per ounce.

    Platinum  was 0.1 percent higher at $837.80 an ounce. The metal fell on Tuesday to the lowest since December 2008 at

$793.