Gold snaps five-day winning streak, plunges Rs 1,350 to Rs 93,000 per 10g

Gold prices fell more than 1 per cent on Friday as traders liquidated their bullion positions following wider market sell-offs, after China's retaliation with fresh tariffs against US President Trump's sweeping levies. 

Spot gold was down 1.2 per cent at $3,075.50 an ounce as of 09:32 a.m. EDT (1332 GMT). It hit a record high of $3,167.57 on Thursday. Bullion was down over 0.4 per cent so far for the week. 

US gold futures were down 0.9 per cent at $3,093.30. 

Investors are selling off some of their gold holdings to cover losses in other asset classes, prompted by margin calls, analysts said.

   

"We still see scope for further upside risks, given the current risk-off environment... we expect prices to hit further record highs in the second quarter," said Standard Chartered analyst Suki Cooper. 

The bank's Q2 gold price forecast is at $3,300/oz. 

China's finance ministry announced that it will impose additional tariffs of 34 per cent on all US goods starting from April 10, in response to reciprocal tariffs unveiled by Trump this week. 

Global stocks fell for a second consecutive day on the news, deepening losses amid fears of a global recession. 

Friday's Labor Department report showed the US economy added 228,000 jobs in March, compared with a rise of 135,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, stood at 4.2 per cent compared with expectations of 4.1 per cent. 

"I think (NFP data) is going to help the Federal Reserve's case to continue delaying lowering the interest rates," said Alex Ebkarian, chief operating officer at Allegiance Gold. 

While gold is considered a safeguard against uncertainty, it tends to thrive in a low-interest-rate environment.

The market is currently pricing 120 bps of Fed rate cuts by the year-end, starting in June. 

Investors are also awaiting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech later in the day for indications on monetary policy.

Spot silver declined 3.7 per cent to $30.70 an ounce and was headed for its worst week since September 2020. 

Platinum lost 2.9 per cent to $925.06 and palladium slipped 1.3 per cent to $915.80, with both headed for a weekly loss.  (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)