Palladium Pierces $1,900; Gold up on China Tariffs Indecision

Investing.com – Palladium edged closer to shattering gold’s all-time record high on Tuesday, moving higher than $1,900 an ounce.

Gold eked out another small gain amid uncertainties on whether the Trump administration would proceed with even more punitive tariffs on China by end of this week.

Palladium, the autocatalyst metal in short supply, hit record highs for the 12th session in a row.

The surged to its highest peak ever of $1,905 before retreating to $1,898 by 3:25 PM ET (20:25 GMT), still up $16.30, or 0.9%, on the day.

for March delivery on Comex settled up $12.50, or 0.7%, at $1,869.10, after an all-time high of $1,874.80.

for February delivery on New York’s COMEX settled up $3.20, or 0.2%, at $1,468.10.

, which tracks live trades in bullion, was up $2.79, or 0.2%, at $1,464.62.

Gold rose after White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow, speaking at a Wall Street Journal conference, said President Donald Trump was likely to proceed with new tariffs against China by Sunday despite other administration officials saying there might be a delay.

Gold has been a hedge against the trade war between the two countries.

“The reality is those tariffs are still on the table, the Dec. 15 tariffs, and the president has indicated if the short strokes remaining in negotiations do not pan out to his liking, (then) those tariffs could go back into place,” Kudlow told the conference, CNBC reported.

“There is no definitive decision on that yet,” Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, added.

Markets have been looking out for hints on what the Trump Administration is likely to do ahead of the deadline for the additional tariffs on $156 billion of Chinese goods. Another senior Trump cabinet official, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, suggested that he believed the president did not want to impose the new duties on China, although he said Trump wanted to see “movement” from China to avoid such a move.

The Journal, in a report earlier on Tuesday citing insiders in the U.S. and Chinese governments, said the groundwork was being laid for a deferment of the duties.