China yesterday announced plans to raise tariffs on about US$60 billion worth of US imports in retaliation to America's move last week to increase duties on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
The US then released a further list of about $300 billion worth of Chinese goods that could be hit with a 25% tariff, Bloomberg reported earlier.
The tariff tit-for-tat has escalated after the pair failed to reach an anticipated trade deal last week.
The gold price briefly breached the $1,300 an ounce mark in the past 24 hours and was 50c below the benchmark at the time of writing.
Toronto's gold sector closed up 4.1% yesterday while the diversified miners were collectively down about 4.1%.
Gold producer Pretium Resources (TSX: PVG) led the market risers with a gain of 7.21% on no news.
Among the majors, Newmont Goldcorp (NYSE: NEM) rose 2.52% in New York yesterday, while Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) closed down 1% in London and BHP (ASX: BHP) was off a similar amount in afternoon Australian trade.
London and US market futures were looking positive at the time of writing but Toronto was set for a lower start and the S&P/ASX200 was lower, following on from yesterday's slump across the board on global markets.