Gold is closing to a new all time high the window of opportunity.
Gold’s price (XAUUSD) is holding steady after dropping on Monday, trading at roughly $2,743 at the time of writing on Tuesday, following an almost 1% decrease the day before after the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek rattled the markets. The result is not insignificant, with Nvidia alone losing more than $550 billion in market capitalization. Bitcoin (BTC) lost more than 6.5% at one point due to the tech-sensitive environment Among the spillover victims in the financial market asset classes.
This plays into the hands of US President Donald Trump, who has again requested worldwide tariffs. The argument is that doing so will better defend US technology companies and protect them from China’s dumping policy. The rule of thumb remains that tariffs are inflationary, which means higher rates, which are a negative for gold.
Later this week, the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) will set policy interest rates on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Daily market movers: Tariffs contribute to inflation.
Asian markets will be quieter this week and next week. With the Lunar New Year beginning on Tuesday, Chinese traders will return to markets on February 5.
According to the Financial Times, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for universal tariffs on US imports that begin at 2.5% and gradually increase, citing anonymous sources. President Trump subsequently said that he wants across-the-board levies that are “much bigger” than that, Bloomberg reported.
The CME FedWatch tool projects no change in the policy rate for Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision. Going forward, the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut in the May rate decision is 40.0%, compared to 51.5% for no change.
Barrick Gold (ABX CN) and Mali will begin new negotiations on Tuesday. Barrick Gold and Mali will attempt to resolve a disagreement over the alleged non-payment of taxes and the seizure of Barrick’s gold stocks by authorties in the country.