The price of gold reached new record highs on Friday, close to $3,230 per ounce, amid ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China and fears of a global recession.
A few minutes before 8:30 a.m., gold, up 1.61% from yesterday's close, reached $3,227.5, according to Bloomberg data. For Yahoo Finance, the ceiling continued to rise and exceeded $3,250 after 1:00 p.m.
This shattered the record set earlier that morning, when it stood at $3,220.08, and the two highs reached the day before, the last one at $3,175.83.
Previously, the last high for the yellow metal had been on April 3, after US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of tariffs on virtually every country in the world.
After announcing its decision to suspend the application of tariffs for 90 days, the United States clarified yesterday that it is maintaining the rates 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 said that from now on it will ignore any additional tariffs imposed by the US 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%, after a first quarter that closed as the best start to the year since 1974.
Unstable stock markets
Meanwhile, European stock markets are trading with volatility this 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.
Wall Street, meanwhile, was in the red after the opening, but soon turned green after constant ups and downs in the previous hours, which are expected to be reflected throughout Friday. At around 14:00 GMT, the S&P 500 was up 0.44%, the Dow Jones 0.36% and the Nasdaq 0.66%. Oil lost just 0.1% to USD 60 per barrel.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's main index, the Nikkei, opened down more than 5%, as investors opted to take profits after the previous session's rise of more than 9% due to the tariff truce, but managed to cushion the decline and closed down 2.96% or 1,023.42 points to 33, 585.58 points.
Key stocks on the Japanese market, such as car manufacturer Toyota and technology and entertainment multinational Sony, fell 4.83% and 7.04%, respectively.
In South Korea, the Seoul Stock Exchange's benchmark index, the Kospi, fell 0.5% or 12.34 points to 2,432.72 points, after opening with a 2% decline.
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