WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures moved sharply higher during trading on Friday, more than offsetting the pullback seen in the previous session.
After falling $17 or 0.5 percent to $3,292.30 during Thursday's session, gold for May delivery surged $71.30 or 2.2 percent to $3,363.60 an ounce. With the increase, the price of gold spiked by 5.7 percent for the week.
The precious metal benefitted from its appeal as a safe haven after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union beginning June 1st.
Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that the EU has 'been very difficult to deal with' and said trade talks with the bloc are 'going nowhere!'
In a separate Truth Social, Trump also threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on Apple (AAPL) iPhones that are not manufactured in the U.S. Shares of Apple have tumbled by 2.2 percent following the news.
Trump's threats have led to renewed to trade concerns, which had waned considerably in recent weeks after the U.S. reached trade deals with the U.K. and China.
The sharp increase by the price of gold also came amid a slump by the value of the U.S. dollar, with the U.S. dollar index sliding by 0.8 percent.
On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing new home sales in the U.S. in the month of April spiked compared to a significantly downwardly revised level in March.
The report said new home sales soared by 10.9 percent to an annual rate of 743,000 in April after jumping by 2.6 percent to a downwardly revised rate of 670,000 in March.
Economists had expected new home sales to tumble by 4.4 percent to a rate of 692,000 from the 724,000 originally reported for the previous month.
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