02:00 PM EST, 03/04/2025 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates prices.)

Gold prices rose for a second day mid-afternoon on Tuesday in a flight to safety as the dollar fell after U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war against the country's largest trading partners.

Gold for April delivery was last seen up US$19.70 to US$2,920.80 per ounce.

The rise comes with investors turning to safe havens as Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and doubled tariffs on goods from China to 20%.

Canada is responding with an initial tranche of retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion of U.S. goods and plans to raise the levies to $155 billion of imports, while China imposed levies of 10% to 15% on U.S. food and agricultural products and placed export and investment restrictions on 25 U.S. companies. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is expected to announce soon her country's plans to retaliate.

Stock markets globally were broadly lower following the imposition of the tariffs.

"Global financial markets are on both a technical and an emotional edge as Trump's tariffs have gone forward, and speculation swirls that he will announce something particularly dramatic in a speech later today. Given the recent movements across the US stock market and the dollar - which has weakened instead of rising - there is growing speculation that we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of US exceptionalism, as capital flows out of overpriced US stocks into other regions," Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, noted.

The dollar also weakened, with the ICE dollar index last seen down 0.85 points to 105.89, the lowest since Dec.5. Treasury yields were mixed, with the U.S. two-year note last seen paying 3.943%, down 1.5 basis points, while the yield on the 10-year note was up 3.9 points to 4.198%.