Gold prices hit a fresh record Monday while the dollar weakened further and stocks were mixed amid worries about Donald Trump’s tariff blitz and bubbling row with the Federal Reserve.
With several markets still closed for the Easter holiday, business was limited ahead of a week that will see the release of key data that should give an insight into the impact of the US president’s trade war.
Several nations have moved to cut a deal with Washington to stem the worst of the White House’s levies, with Japan the highest profile economy.
However, China warned governments on Monday not to seek an agreement that compromised Beijing’s interests.
While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 percent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.
“Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
“To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger,” Beijing said.
That approach, it warned, “will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others”.
The remarks come after Trump said Thursday that the United States was in talks with China on tariffs, adding that he was confident the world’s largest economies could make a deal to end the bitter trade war.
“Yeah, we’re talking to China,” he said. “I would say they have reached out a number of times.”
“I think we’re going to make a very good deal with China.”
Concerns about the global economic outlook pushed safe haven assets higher, with gold hitting a new record high above $3,384.
The precious metal was also helped by a weaker dollar, which has also been hit by worries about Trump’s standoff with Fed boss Jerome Powell.
The president raised worries about the bank’s independence when he last week lashed Powell for warning that the tariffs were “highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation” and suggested interest rate cuts were unlikely.
Trump later called on him to slash borrowing costs and added: “If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.”
Powell has said he had no plans to step down early, adding that he considered the bank’s independence over monetary policy to be a “matter of law”.
The dollar fell against its main peers, with the yen and euro among the best performers.
French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said: “Donald Trump has hurt the credibility of the dollar with his aggressive moves on tariffs — for a long time.”
