The price of gold surged on Tuesday, August 29, to its highest in nine and a half months as mounting geopolitical tensions over North Korea’s launch of a missile that flew over Japan stoked demand for safe-haven assets, while weighing heavily on the dollar and equities.
Spot gold climbed 0.5 percent to $1,316.66 an ounce by 0048 GMT, after earlier touching its highest since early November at $1,322.33. It gained 1.4 percent in the previous
session.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery were up 0.5 percent to $1,322.20 per ounce.
U.S. stock futures and Asian share markets tumbled on Tuesday, while the yen jumped to four-month highs against the dollar after North Korea’s missile flew over northern Japan,
setting up a tense start to trading for markets in the region.
South Korea and Japan said the missile North Korea launched early on Tuesday landed in Pacific waters east of Hokkaido after flying over the northern Japanese island, in a
sharp escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
As bond markets brace for an end to ECB stimulus, reinvesting funds from maturing bonds the bank holds could prevent the kind of “taper tantrum” that sent yields soaring in
2013 after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled an end to its bond-buying scheme.
The Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) launched the world’s first diamond futures contracts on Monday to provide exporters with a hedging tool.
