Gold hits highest level in three-and-a-half months
Metal edges up to $1,256.31 as the dollar heads for its first weekly decline in three after the new US finance chief poured cold water on the ‘Trumpflation trade’
London — Gold hit its highest in about three-and-a-half months on Friday as the dollar headed for its first weekly decline in three after the new US finance chief poured cold water on the "Trumpflation trade" that had boosted the greenback this year. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that any steps US President Donald Trump’s administration took on policy would probably have only limited effect this year, although he wanted to see tax reform passed by August. The comments suggested much work was still needed on the sweeping tax-reform plan that Mnuchin called his main priority, and which investors had bet would stoke growth and inflation in 2017. "We’ve got a vacuum of [US domestic] policy, real [interest] rates going down, the dollar going sideways and geopolitical [jitters] around the world ... all helping gold," ICBC Standard Bank analyst Tom Kendall said. "There is apparently a move of institutional investor money into gold and there are usually very good reason...
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