By Anjana Anil
(Reuters) – Gold prices edged up on Thursday as persisting uncertainty over tariffs drove safe-haven demand, while a cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation print supported the dollar by bolstering rate cuts expectations.
Spot gold gained 0.1% to $2,934.08 an ounce as of 0745 GMT, while U.S. gold futures eased 0.1% to $2,943.70.
“I think $3,000 is the next logical target, likely to be reached sometime over the next several months,” said Marex analyst Edward Meir.
“The CPI data was encouraging but I suspect that the tariff increase has yet to be picked up in the inflation data.”
The U.S. consumer price index increased less than expected last month, data showed, but the improvement is likely temporary given the aggressive U.S. import tariffs, which are expected to make most goods more expensive in the months ahead.
Lower inflation leaves more room for the Federal Reserve to cut rates and non-yielding gold thrives in a low-interest rate setting.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a trade war, increasing the tariffs on goods from China to 20% and imposing a new 25% duty on Canadian and Mexican imports.
He later dialled back, providing a one-month exemption for any goods that meet the rules of origin under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.
Trump also reversed course on a pledge to double tariffs on steel and aluminium from Canada to 50%, hours after announcing the higher tariffs.
The tariffs are widely expected to stoke inflation and economic uncertainty and had pushed gold to a record high of $2,956.15 on February 24.
Investors now await the U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) data due at 1230 GMT for further insights into the Fed’s monetary policy.
Spot silver fell 0.8% to $32.97 an ounce, platinum lost 0.7% to $977.05 and palladium shed 0.5% to $943.72.
(Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Janane Venkatraman and Sumana Nandy)
