Gold prices hit new all-time highs Friday, near $3,230 an ounce, as trade tensions between the U.S. and China and fears of global recession continue.

A few minutes before 8.30 am, gold, up 1.61% from yesterday's close, has reached USD 3,227.5, according to Bloomberg data. For Yahoo Finance, the ceiling continued to rise and exceeded USD 3,250 after 13:00 hrs.

In this way, it smashed this morning's record, when it stood at 3,220.08 dollars, and the two highs reached the day before, the last one at 3,175.83 dollars.

Previously, the last high for the yellow metal had been on April 3, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the imposition of tariffs on almost all countries in the world.

After the United States announced its decision to suspend the tariffs for 90 days, yesterday it clarified that it is maintaining the tariffs on China, which amount to 145% in total.

In response, China announced this morning that it will increase tariffs on all products imported from the United States from 84% to 125%, and announced that it will now ignore any additional tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Chinese goods.

Since January 1, gold, an asset considered a safe haven in times of uncertainty, has seen its value increase by more than 22%, following a first quarter that closed as the best start to a year since 1974.

Unstable bags

Meanwhile, European stock markets are trading volatile on Friday. At 11:45 GMT, London is up 0.71%, Frankfurt is down 0.99% and Paris is down 0.21% after all had opened extending the previous day's gains.

For its part, Wall Street showed red numbers after the opening, but soon turned green, after a steady rise and fall in the previous hours that is expected to be reflected throughout Friday. By 14:00 GMT, the S&P 500 was trading up 0.44%, the Dow Jones up 0.36% and the Nasdaq up 0.66%. Oil is down just 0.1% at USD 60 per barrel.

The main index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei, opened down more than 5%, with investors opting to take profits after the rise of more than 9% in the previous session due to the tariff truce, but managed to cushion the setback and closed down 2.96% or 1,023.42 points, to 33,585.58 points.

Key Japanese stocks such as the vehicle manufacturer Toyota and the technology and entertainment multinational Sony depreciated by 4.83% and 7.04%, respectively.

In South Korea, the Seoul Stock Exchange benchmark, the Kospi, was down 0.5% or 12.34 points at 2,432.72 points, after opening down 2%.

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