Investing.com-- Gold prices fell slightly in Asian trade on Thursday, extending steep losses from the prior session after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 elections sparked a rally in the dollar and risk assets.
The yellow metal was also battered by a hefty dose of profit-taking, having notched a series of record highs in the run-up to the elections. But despite recent losses, gold still retained a bulk of its gains from the past month.
Spot gold fell slightly to $2,658.03 an ounce, while gold futures expiring in December fell 0.4% to $2,664.70 an ounce by 23:37 ET (04:37 GMT).
Gold pressured by dollar rally after Trump victory
Spot gold prices tumbled more than 3% on Wednesday after Trump’s victory saw the dollar rally to four-month highs.
A quick conclusion to a hotly contested presidential election also cleared a key point of uncertainty for global financial markets, triggering a risk-on rally across the board, while pressuring safe haven assets such as gold.
But the yellow metal found a floor on Thursday, as uncertainty still remained in play as Trump said he will pick his cabinet. The president-elect has also vowed to increase trade tariffs on China, which could trigger a renewed trade war between the world’s biggest economies.
Trump is also expected to enact more inflationary policies in his term, likely underpinning interest rates and pressuring non-yielding assets such as gold.
Focus on Thursday was also on the conclusion of a Federal Reserve meeting later in the day, where the central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.
But markets were skittish over what the Fed will signal regarding future rate cuts, especially in the face of sticky inflation and a Trump presidency.
Other precious metals retreated on Thursday. Platinum futures fell 0.6% to $988.40 an ounce, while silver futures fell 0.9% to $31.035 an ounce, with both metals also nursing steep losses in recent sessions.
Copper upbeat as China imports remain steady
Among industrial metals, copper prices rose on Thursday, recovering some measure of recent losses as trade data from China showed the country’s copper imports remained steady in October.
Benchmark copper futures on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.3% to $9,444.50 a ton, while December copper futures rose 1.4% to $4.2980 a pound. Both contracts slid between 4% and 5% on Wednesday, as markets feared increased economic headwinds for China from a Trump presidency.
China is the world’s biggest copper importer, and fears of slowing demand in the country have been a key weight on prices in recent months.
Still, data on Thursday showed China imported 506,000 metric tons of unwrought copper and copper products in October, up 1.1% year-on-year.