Recently, the gold market has shown remarkable performance, with prices continuing to climb. The US consumer price data for February indicates that both overall and core inflation increases have moderated. The rise in housing costs was partially offset by the decline in airline ticket prices. Specifically, after the CPI accelerated by 0.5% in January, it only increased by 0.2% in February, the smallest increase since October. The CPI in February rose 2.8% year-on-year, lower than 3.0% in January and below market expectations. In terms of the core CPI, excluding food and energy, it increased by 0.2% month-on-month and 3.1% year-on-year in February, also the smallest increase since April 2021. This data provides room for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates unchanged next week and observe the economic impact of the trade war. Meanwhile, it raises market expectations of the Fed resuming rate cuts in June, which is an important supporting factor for the rise in gold prices.

On the trade policy front, the situation is becoming increasingly tense. Trump's measures to impose tariffs on US steel and aluminum imports came into effect on Wednesday, and he threatened to further increase tariffs on EU goods to escalate the global trade war, which quickly triggered retaliatory actions from Europe, Canada, and other countries. The escalation of trade frictions has greatly stimulated market risk aversion, and investors have flocked to the gold market for hedging, injecting strong momentum into the rise of gold prices.

On Wednesday, gold prices rose nearly $20 driven by the above factors, reaching a intraday high of $2,940.34 per ounce, just a step away from the all-time high of $2,956.01. It finally closed at $2,933.18 per ounce. In the early Asian trading session on Thursday, spot gold fluctuated narrowly at a near two-week high, trading around $2,936.14 per ounce. The market is closely watching the US Producer Price Index (PPI) and the number of initial jobless claims data to be released on Thursday, which may have a new impact on the trend of the gold market.