Gold prices up on marketplace coronavirus worries

KITCO-- "Gold and silver prices are modestly up in early U.S. futures trading Thursday. The safe-haven metals bulls have stabilized their markets late this week, despite rallies in global stock markets this week, led by the U.S. stock indexes that are at record highs again....The coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, with over 500 reported dead in China and around 30,000 afflicted in the country. China's domestic commerce is being impacted, as is global commerce. The big drop in Tesla's stock price Wednesday is blamed at least in part on the coronavirus out break impacting Tesla's business in China. Many global companies doing business with China have been negatively impacted. It will not be surprising to this longtime market watcher to see the coronavirus outbreak back on the front burner of the marketplace next week, or sooner. Such a scenario would be bullish for gold, U.S. Treasuries and the U.S. dollar, and bearish for global equities. Reports overnight said China has moved to lower tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports, as part of its recent partial trade agreement with the U.S. Chinese officials also said the plan to cut domestic value-added taxes....Technically, the gold bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage and have worked to stabilize the market late this week."