Gold Price Hits $3000 as US Consumer Sentiment Sinks on 'Trump Uncertainty'
Friday, 3/14/2025 15:20
GOLD pulled back Friday after breaking $3000 per ounce for the first time in history but held at a new record-high weekly closing price as US consumer sentiment extended its worst plunge since the Covid Crash amid Trump 2.0's volatile trade-war policy and geopolitical re-ordering.
Setting a new record price this morning above ¥695 per gram in China – gold's No.1 consumer and central-bank buying nation –
gold in New York's Comex futures market jumped as high as
$3017 on the April contract.
London bullion meantime peaked almost $5 above
the $3000 mark for gold before also falling back, retreating to a gold price of $2985 per Troy ounce for a 1.9% weekly rise at a new all-time Friday evening high.
"[Because of] the high level of uncertainty around policy and other economic factors," says the University of Michigan in its preliminary March report, "[US] consumers from all three political affiliations are in agreement that the outlook has weakened since February."
That's sent
the Michigan survey's monthly index sinking to a 2.5-year low, heading for its sharpest quarterly drop since the Covid Crisis of spring 2020 as fears over the impact of trade tariffs sees consumers' year-ahead inflation expectations jump from 4.3% to 4.9% per annum.
"Over the last year we've had a very good run for gold because of all the uncertainty that we're seeing in global markets," says Nikos Kavalis, managing director of specialist bullion-market analysts Metals Focus.
"That's been amplified over the past 48 hours because
it's clear the Trump administration is doubling down on its trade-war policies, really spooking investors."
Western stock markets rose Friday however, rallying for only the 4th session in 10 so far in March and pulling the MSCI World Index 1.1% above from last night's new 6-month low.
Silver meantime tracked gold prices, hitting a new 5-month Dollar high at $34.08 per Troy ounce before retreating 50 cents.
Crude oil bounced again from this week's 3-year lows, copper reached new 9-month highs, and tech stocks on the Nasdaq 100 index rallied to cut their 1-month loss to 11.5%.
After saying again that both Canada and Greenland should become part of the United States, Donald Trump today called on Moscow's President Putin to avoid a "horrible massacre" of Ukrainian troops now surrounded by Russian forces in Kursk.
Trump also thanked Democrat Party leader Chuck Schumer for agreeing to the Republicans' proposed budget rather than delaying it beyond next week's deadline for
yet another debt ceiling limit and possible US government shutdown.
"Our Economy will BOOM, like never before!" says Trump.
"[But] it's not really a decision, it's a Hobson's choice," said Schumer to colleagues in the Senate late Thursday.
"Either proceed with the bill before us, or
risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown."
Back in gold prices, and "whether it's $3200 or $3500, it's very hard to predict the actual top," says Kavalis at Metals Focus.
"But we're close," he believes, because he expects US policy to become more clear and stable, led by the White House refusing to let the US slide into recession.
Next week brings the US Federal Reserve's March interest-rate decision, plus its updated 'dot plot' forecasts for GDP growth, inflation and the path of US Dollar borrowing costs.
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