Gold nudges up as Asian shares edge lower

Tuesday,   23-Oct-2018   09:32 AM (IST)

Gold prices inched up early Tuesday as Asian stocks faltered, weighed down by political tensions between Saudi Arabia and Western powers, uncertainties around Brexit and Italy’s budgetary woes.Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,222.53 an ounce.U.S. gold futures edged up 0.1 percent to $1,225.30 an ounce.Palladium eased 0.2 percent to $1,119.50 an ounce, having hit a nine-month high of $1,124.40 in the previous session.Asian shares were listless on Tuesday, a day after a strong rally led by stimulus hope in China, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropping 0.5 percent.U.S. President Donald Trump said he was still not satisfied with what he has heard from Saudi Arabia about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, but did not want to lose investment from Riyadh.Russia said it would be forced to respond in kind to restore the military balance with the United States if Trump carried through on a threat to quit a nuclear arms treaty and began developing new missiles.Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.28 percent to 747.88 tonnes on Monday.