Investing.com - Gold prices traded higher on Tuesday as uncertainty over future developments in the U.S.-China trade conflict and worries over the global economy continued to boost demand for the safe-haven precious metal.
Gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $5.65, or 0.4%, to $1,542.85 a troy ounce by 10:32 AM ET (14:32 GMT).
Gold has risen 7% in August and is up nearly 18% so far this year as uncertainty buoys the appeal of the asset as a store of value.
Nothing new transpired between Washington and Beijing as Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang simply repeated Tuesday that he had no knowledge of the phone call between trade negotiators that U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned a day earlier.
“It’s clear that the main focus is on the U.S.-China developments. Reports from China on the trade front indicate we are nowhere near any change in the current standoff on trade,” Saxo Bank commodity strategist Ole Hansen said.
On the economic front, American consumers seemed relatively unfazed by escalating trade tensions as the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index dropped less than expected, remaining “relatively unchanged” from July’s reading that had been the highest all year, according to CB’s senior director of economic indicators Lynn Franco.
Franco said that expectations cooled slightly but remained strong, while consumers’ assessment of current conditions improved to its highest level in 19 years.
“While other parts of the economy may show some weakening, consumers have remained confident and willing to spend,” she said. “However, if the recent escalation in trade and tariff tensions persists, it could potentially dampen consumers’ optimism regarding the short-term economic outlook.”
U.S. housing data meanwhile showed that prices were losing momentum with growth in June slowing to its weakest level in nearly seven years.
Elsewhere, Germany confirmed that its economy contracted in the second quarter as the export-driven economy was hit by trade tensions.
And while China’s industrial profits returned to annual growth in July, the outlook in the face of the ongoing trade war remained clouded.
"The downward pressure on the economy is relatively high, the market demand is slowing down, the prices of industrial products are falling," the statistics bureau's senior statistician, Zhu Hong, said in a statement accompanying the data.
In other metals trading, silver futures gained 1.7% to $18.082 a troy ounce by 10:36 AM ET (14:36 GMT).
Palladium futures advanced 0.2% to $1,477.60 an ounce, while sister metal platinum rose 0.8% to $864.30.
In base metals, copper was little changed at $2.535 a pound.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.