Gold prices edged lower on Tuesday, as investors booked profits after the precious metal struck the record $4,600/ounce level in the last session amid sharpened geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Spot gold traded 0.3% lower at $4,593.81 per ounce as of 0646 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery slipped 0.6% to $4,587.10.
"There are probably a few people out there just booking some short-term profit, but as we saw yesterday, the dip in Asia hours could be bought pretty quickly," said Kyle Rodda, senior market analyst at Capital.com.
The bullion climbed more than 2% to hit an all-time high of $4,629.94 in the previous session after the Trump administration opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Further fuelling geopolitical worries, U.S. President Trump said on Monday any country that does business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on trade with the U.S., as Washington weighs its response to the crackdown on the biggest anti-government protests in years in the oil-exporting nation. Iran's unrest comes as Trump flexes U.S. muscles internationally, having captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and discusses acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.
Non-yielding assets tend to do well in a low-interest-rate environment and when geopolitical or economic risks spike. Citi raised its three-month price targets to $5,000/oz for gold and $100/oz for silver, respectively, citing strong investment momentum and the multitude of bullish drivers now likely to remain intact during the first quarter.
"The ongoing physical market shortages on silver and platinum group metals could also marginally worsen in the short term due to a potential delay in the Section 232 tariff decisions, which eventually pose large binary risks on trade flows and prices," Citi said in a note.
Spot silver was down 0.1% at $84.86 per ounce after hitting an all-time high of $86.22 on Monday. Spot platinum lost 1.9% to $2,299.20 per ounce after scaling a record peak of $2,478.50 on December 29. Palladium slid 2.6% to $1,793.0 per ounce. - Reuters
