Spot gold was up 0.4% at $1,414.61 per ounce as of 0540 GMT. Gold has risen nearly 8.4% so far this month, on track for its biggest monthly percentage gain since June 2016.
With nearly 1.2% gained so far this week, bullion is also set to post its sixth consecutive weekly rise.
U.S. gold futures climbed 0.8% to $1,423.40 an ounce.
· The leaders of the Group of 20 countries meet on Friday and Saturday in Osaka, Japan, with a much-anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for Saturday.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that Xi plans to present Trump with a set of terms the United States should meet before Beijing would be ready to settle their trade dispute.
White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, however, said Trump has agreed to no preconditions for his high-stakes meeting with Xi and is maintaining his threat to impose new tariffs on Chinese goods.
· “On going tensions around the trade talks between the U.S. and China helped gold with some safe-haven buying prior to the G20 summit meeting on Saturday,” ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said.
“The emergence of a list of requirements from China has just reminded the market that it’s going to be a difficult process to get the trade talks going again,” he said.
The trade tensions also weighed on equity markets on Friday, boosting appeal for safe-haven bullion.
The yellow metal also been underpinned by a softer dollar , which stood at 96.200 after hitting a near one-week high in the previous session.
· Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.26% to 795.80 tonnes on Thursday, from 797.85 tonnes on Wednesday.
On the technical front, spot gold may retest a resistance at $1,439 per ounce, as it has found support at $1,404, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
· Gold price consolidation late this week creates a set-up for more gains with prices expected to near $1,500 in 2020, according to TD Securities.
Despite dropping from fresh six-year highs on Wednesday, the yellow metal still managed to steady itself well above the $1,400 an ounce level on Thursday. At the time of writing, August Comex gold futures were trading at $1,412.40, 0.03% on the day.
TD Securities is long gold at the moment, projecting for prices to end this year around $1,400 an ounce and climb towards $1,475 in 2020.
The next big items on the agenda for gold are the G20 meeting and the July Federal Reserve interest rate announcement. The former is unlikely to have much of an impact on the yellow metal, with the market zeroing in on the Fed, strategists at TD Securities said on Thursday.
“Crosscurrents and softer inflation led to a dovish Fed shift. We look for 75bp of cuts in 2019 and 75bp in 2020,” TD Securities wrote. “While consensus growth expectations suggest US GDP growth around 1.8% Q/Q SAAR in the coming four quarters, our tracking suggests that is likely to be about 0.5pp lower.”
· Among other precious metals, silver inched up 0.1% to $15.27 per ounce. The metal is set to post its first monthly gain in five months, and is headed for its best month this year.
Palladium gained 0.5% to $1,558.10 an ounce. The auto-catalyst metal has risen over 17% so far this month, its biggest monthly percentage gain since November 2016.
Platinum was up 0.4% at $814.56.
Reference: Reuters, Kitco
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