- Gold sees a small 0.50% gain at the start of the week despite tariffs being set to hit on Tuesday.
- Federal Reserve rate cut bets are still favoring a rate cut for June.
- The precious metal moves up from the daily Pivot Point for now.
Gold’s price (XAU/USD) is heading back to the high in the Asian session near $2,876 at the time of writing. Tariffs are still set to hit on Tuesday for Mexico and Canada and additional tariffs on China, they are not really triggering another flight into Gold. Traders will need to look for new headlines about tariffs, and there is still the chance that United States (US) President Donald Trump will change his mind.
Meanwhile, traders are still digesting Friday’s turn of events. The spat between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on one side and US President Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance is still making headlines. The surprise move that took place afterward in London, with the United Kingdom extending several billions in loans to be covered with the frozen Russian assets in Europe, was actually something that President Trump was after. With no rare earth deal in place, the televised spat in the Oval Office, and now London reeling in the agreement on the frozen Russian assets, all bets could be off the table with even possibly the US withdrawing from NATO.
Daily digest market movers: Heading towards tariffs
- Ghana’s new central bank chief, Johnson Asiama, has suspended the West African nation’s program of paying for Oil with Gold and said he expects the Ghana cedi (GHC) to stabilize after its volatility of last year, Bloomberg reports..
- The CME Fedwatch tool shows a 77.6% chance of a lower monetary policy rate for the Federal Reserve (Fed) in June, while the odds of keeping it unchanged are 22.4%.
- At 18:00 GMT, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin delivers a speech, “Inflation Then and Now”, in Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development.
- The US 10-year benchmark rate is currently trading around 4.23% on Monday, a touch higher from its fresh low at 4.19% on Friday.
Technical Analysis: Moving away
It looks like the cat is out of the bag for now. Last week, traders received all the information they needed, and the first new tariffs under the second term from US President Trump are set to kick in on Tuesday. For Bullion to be enabled to make a fresh all-time high, or at least move in that direction, new tariffs will be needed. Besides that, a continuous descent in yields would also help, where both drivers would be enough to see a steep rally in Gold prices again.
The daily Pivot Point at $2,857 is currently providing support to bounce off from and attempt to push Bullion higher. Further up, the daily R1 resistance at $2,882 is the first big level to watch out for and converges with February 14 and 17 lows. In case Gold has enough oomph to break through there, the daily R2 resistance at $2,910 will possibly be the final cap on Monday.
On the downside, the S1 support at $2,835 converges with Friday’s low. That will be vital support for Monday. If Bullion bulls want to avoid another leg lower, that level must hold. Further down, the dailyS2 support at $2,805 should be able to catch any additional downside pressure and will try to avoid a break below $2,800 and $2,790.
XAU/USD: Daily Chart
Tariffs FAQs
Tariffs are customs duties levied on certain merchandise imports or a category of products. Tariffs are designed to help local producers and manufacturers be more competitive in the market by providing a price advantage over similar goods that can be imported. Tariffs are widely used as tools of protectionism, along with trade barriers and import quotas.
Although tariffs and taxes both generate government revenue to fund public goods and services, they have several distinctions. Tariffs are prepaid at the port of entry, while taxes are paid at the time of purchase. Taxes are imposed on individual taxpayers and businesses, while tariffs are paid by importers.
There are two schools of thought among economists regarding the usage of tariffs. While some argue that tariffs are necessary to protect domestic industries and address trade imbalances, others see them as a harmful tool that could potentially drive prices higher over the long term and lead to a damaging trade war by encouraging tit-for-tat tariffs.
During the run-up to the presidential election in November 2024, Donald Trump made it clear that he intends to use tariffs to support the US economy and American producers. In 2024, Mexico, China and Canada accounted for 42% of total US imports. In this period, Mexico stood out as the top exporter with $466.6 billion, according to the US Census Bureau. Hence, Trump wants to focus on these three nations when imposing tariffs. He also plans to use the revenue generated through tariffs to lower personal income taxes.
Read the full article here