Gold prices nudged higher early Friday as Asian shares fell on renewed political and economic concerns, with the metal on track for its third straight weekly rise.
Spot gold was up 0.2 per cent at $1,227.31 an ounce at 0107 GMT. It was up about 0.7 per cent for the week. US gold futures were little changed at $1,230.60 an ounce. Stocks in Asia fell as global sentiment soured on issues ranging from trade worries, Italy's 2019 budget, higher US interest rates and growth concerns in China that led to a slump in Chinese shares in the previous session.
China's third quarter economic growth slowed to its weakest pace since the global financial crisis, and missed expectations, as a years-long campaign to tackle debt risks and the trade war with the United States began to bite. The economy grew 6.5 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, slower than the second quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
US trade policy towards China over the next few years will become more confrontational, according to a majority of economists in a
Italy's Prime Minister defended its free-spending budget on Thursday, brushing off criticism from Brussels as the European Commission stepped up pressure over a draft it labelled an unprecedented breach of EU fiscal rules. British Prime Minister Theresa May and other EU leaders voiced renewed confidence on Thursday they could secure a Brexit deal, saying they were working hard to overcome the hurdles that only days ago brought the talks to a halt.
The United States is requesting that a World Trade Organization dispute resolution panel get involved in a clash over international retaliation over US tariffs on steel and aluminium, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he presumes missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead and that the U.S. response to Saudi Arabia will likely be “very severe” but that he still wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly happened.
The Federal Reserve's current monetary policy path would raise the risks of recession in an economy where recent, unexpectedly strong growth may start to taper anyway, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Thursday. Switzerland's gold imports and exports fell in September from August, data showed.