Investing.com - Gold prices held steady above $1,500 on Friday, on track for a solid weekly gain of nearly 4%, supported by safe-haven demand and a global wave of monetary policy easing.
Gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, were little changed, up 15 cents to $1,509.65 a troy ounce by 9:56 AM ET (13:56 GMT).
Marc Chandler, chief market strategist and managing partner at Bannockburn Global Forex, said bullish sentiment in gold has been strong recently.
“With today's small gains, gold is poised to close the week over a $60 higher than it began the week, which is the most in at least a couple of years,” he said in a note. “It has risen in 10 of the past 12 weeks.”
The relative attractiveness of gold as a haven asset increased further Friday as German and U.K. government bond yields again flirted with all-time lows, on a mixture of economic and political concerns.
The British economy contracted in the second quarter, its worst performance since 2012, as the U.K. continues to struggle to reach an amenable agreement with the European Union before its scheduled departure on Oct. 31.
Additionally, Bloomberg reported overnight that the U.S. is holding off on giving permissions to American companies to go back to doing business with Huawei. The report, while unsurprising, highlighted the ongoing trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
The dispute's effects were also in evidence as Chinese producer prices shrank in year-on-year terms for the first time in three years, adding pressure for Beijing to pump more economic stimulus.
“The trade spat is driving the market crazy,” Jigar Trivedi, commodities analyst at Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers, said. “We don’t rule out technical corrections, but $1,500 is now the new normal unless trade relations take a turn in a right direction.”
Core producer prices in the U.S. also showed the first drop in factory gate inflation in two years, reinforcing arguments for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates further.
Although second-quarter growth in Japan topped expectations, analysts said the good news was likely to be temporary as trade tensions and a pending tax hike threatened its export-driven economy.
In other metals trading, silver futures declined 0.2% to $16.907 a troy ounce by 9:56 AM ET (13:56 GMT).
Palladium futures advanced 0.9% to $1,425.70 an ounce, while sister metal platinum lost 0.3% to $865.05.
In base metals, copper traded down 0.9% at $2.584 a pound.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.