Gold traded near a one-month high after jumping the most since March on Thursday as US-China tensions and a deepening global slowdown buoyed demand for haven assets.
Bullion surged 1.5 percent on Thursday and was heading for a run of three straight weekly gains after China likely fired missiles over Taiwan during military drills.
Beijing has responded aggressively after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan this week, the highest-ranking US politician to visit the nation in 25 years.
There were more signs that the fight to cool inflation would weigh on global growth. The Bank of England unleashed its biggest rate hike in 27 years as it warned the UK is heading for more than a year of recession, while Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said that US interest rates needed to be raised above 4 percent.
Gold has risen about 6 percent from a low on July 20, benefiting from a weakening dollar and falling US bond yields. Traders will be looking at US nonfarm payrolls data that were to be released yesterday for clues on the US Federal Reserve’s tightening path.
The report was likely to show that hiring softened last month, Bloomberg Economics said.
“Safe-haven demand continues to support gold ahead of the non-farm payroll data,” said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, director at Commtrendz Risk Management Services. “It could get a bit choppy ahead of the data. Central banks acknowledging recession is also underpinning sentiment for the precious metal, which was under pressure due to rising yields.”
Spot gold rose 0.1 percent to US$1,792.60 an ounce as of 11:57am in Singapore and was up 1.5 percent this week.
It climbed to US$1,794.97 on Thursday, the highest intraday level since July 5.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index edged higher. Silver, platinum and palladium advanced.
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