Investing.com - Prices of safe-haven gold rose for a seventh-straight day on Thursday in Asia, getting some residual support by expectations that the Federal Reserve will have to cut rates this year to maintain economic growth.
Gold futures for August delivery, traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, were up 0.2% at $1,333.60 per ounce by 12:43 AM ET (04:43 GMT).
The August gold contract has now gained around 4% since May 29. Expectations of a rate cut by the Fed, worsening Sino-U.S. trade relations and unexpected tariffs on Mexican goods were cited as tailwinds for the safe-haven gold.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in a speech that the central bank will do what it takes to retain the near-record expansion of the U.S. economy, amid President Donald Trump’s trade wars.
The International Monetary Fund’s warning that China’s growth could slow next year amid the trade war with the U.S. further dented investor sentiment and sent gold prices even higher.
The IMF said it expects the world’s second-largest economy’s growth to slow to 6% next year, and to 5.5% by 2024 after Sino-U.S. trade negotiations took a turn for the worse last month.
U.S.-China tariffs, that have been both implemented and proposed, could cut global economic output by 0.5% in 2020 and would cause some $455 billion in gross domestic product to evaporate, the IMF warned.