Gold hit an all-time high on Monday as tit-for-tat consulate closures in China and the United States rattled investors, boosting the allure of safe haven assets, although sentiment was mixed with tech gains supporting some Asian stocks, APA reports citing Reuters.
MSCI’s ex-Japan Asia-Pacific index rose 1.3% as Taiwan’s TSMC, Asia’s third-largest company by market capitalisation, rose almost 10%.
The chipmaker’s gains boosted other tech stocks in the region and came after rival Intel signalled it may give up manufacturing its own components due to delays in new 7 nanometer chip technology.
Also soothing sentiment, Chinese shares eked out gains after big falls late last week, with CSI300 index rising 0.5%.
S&P500 futures were last up 0.4% in choppy trade while Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.5%, resuming trade after a long weekend and catching up with falls in global shares late last week.
Global shares had lost steam last week after Washington ordered China’s consulate in Houston to close, prompting Beijing to react in kind by closing the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took fresh aim at China last week, saying Washington and its allies must use “more creative and assertive ways” to press the Chinese Communist Party to change its ways.
“U.S. President (Donald) Trump used to say China’s President Xi Jinping is a great leader. But now Pompeo’s wording is becoming so aggressive that markets are starting to worry about further escalation,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi Securities.
Gold rose 1.0% to a record high of $1,920.9 per ounce, surpassing a peak touched in September 2011, as Sino-U.S. tensions boosted the allure of safe haven assets, especially those not tied to any specific country.
The yellow metal is also helped by aggressive monetary easing adopted by many central banks around the world since the pandemic plunged the global economy into a recession.
Some investors fret such an unprecedented level of money-printing could eventually lead to inflation.=
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