Gold prices slip amid mixed signals ahead of G-20 summit

Gold prices slipped on Thursday in Asia as the U.S. sent mixed signals on trade deal with China ahead of the upcoming G-20 summit.

Gold futures for August delivery, traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, were down 0.2%, at $1,410.55 per ounce by 11:28 PM ET (03:28 GMT).

U.S. Treasury Steven Mnuchin told CNBC overnight that “we were about 90% of the way there (on reaching a trade deal) and I think there’s a path to complete this”.

He also showed confidence that the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit on Saturday could achieve progress.

Mnuchin’s remarks came after reports that the U.S. is willing to delay the next round of tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods as goodwill gestures to bring Beijing back to the negotiating table, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg.

However, on the other hand, Trump warned that substantial additional U.S. tariffs could be placed on China if no progress in trade talks is made this weekend.

“My Plan B with China is to take in billions and billions of dollars a month and we’ll do less and less business with them,” Trump said Wednesday during an interview with Fox Business Network.

The White House announced his meeting with Xi would take place at 11:30am on Saturday in Osaka, Japan.

Gold’s rally came to an end earlier this week after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized that politics won’t be a consideration in its decision to reshape rate policy.

Additionally, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that he didn’t see the necessity of a half-point, or 50 basis points, rate cut.