Gold futures rebounded from back-to-back losses on Friday, trading about $3 below a revisit of the nearly six-year high scored early in the week.
The impending sideline meetings at the Group of 20 conference in Japan between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held the attention of financial markets, as uncertainty around the trade standoff had been supportive for haven gold in recent sessions. Trump and Xi will likely use the G-20 meeting this weekend to “press pause” on their continuing trade war, but uncertainties persist, analysts have said.
August gold GCQ19, +0.08% was up $4.50, or 0.3%, at $1,416.50 an ounce. Prices had settled at $1,418.70 Tuesday before pulling back. That was the most robust settlement price for a most-active contract since Aug. 28, 2013, according to FactSet data. Gold is headed for a roughly 1% gain for the week, up some 8% for June.
Read: Why gold prices have climbed to their highest since 2013
Stock markets traded in subdued fashion and looked to end the week near flat, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.27% was on track for the best June since 1938. The blue-chip index and gold were defying their typically inverse relationship with stellar June returns for both.
Gold gained in part as the leading dollar index DXY, -0.08% slipped, making commodities priced in the U.S. unit, such as gold, more attractive to investors using other currencies.
Expectations for lower interest rates among global central banks and geopolitical concerns centered on trade spats and tensions with Iran had been making gold a preferred investment this spring, especially as competing low-risk U.S. Treasury bond yields dropped. The yield on the 10-year note TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.67% fell below 2% in recent sessions.
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