Gold soars 2% after Powell speech, Trump tweets
Gold surged 2% on Friday as investors interpreted U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech as leaning toward a dovish monetary policy stance and President Donald Trump's latest comments exacerbated trade tensions with China. Spot gold rose 1.9% at $1,526.60 an ounce by 14:08 pm EDT (1801 GMT), shaking off slight headwinds ahead of the Fed Chair's speech. Prices earlier rose to $1,528.79, the highest since Aug. 13, when spot gold had scaled a six-year peak of $1,534.31. U.S. gold futures settled up 1.9% to $1,537.60. "The fact that he (Powell) said that they (the Fed) will act appropriately to sustain expansion is pretty bullish for gold. The two primary tools they have are quantitative easing (QE) or lower rates - both those tools will cause gold to go higher," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures. "The move this morning is just more people buying gold simply with the expectations that intere...