With bilateral trade consultations reportedly looming ahead, the dollar has witnessed a bit of a decline, which in turn couldn’t help but affect the precious metal’s price.

Gold showed growth onFriday, while the dollar fell againstthe yen followingreports that US President Donald Trump would challenge Japan next ontrade issues.

Spot gold rose slightly to $1,200.88 onFriday morning, having previously hit a record nearly one-week high of $1,206.98 the day before, withgold investors eagerly pinning their hopes onsteady growth.

"The stronger yen versus dollar is leading tosome buying ingold… The recent low ofaround $1,160 inAugust is really the bottom ingold fornow," Yuichi Ikemizu, Tokyo branch manager ofICBC Standard Bank, told Reuters.

"The next moves will mostly depend onthe employment data tonight and the September Federal Reserve meeting. But it mostly looks likegold is slowly coming upand the dollar is coming offas gold is too oversold and the dollar has been overbought."

Gold reached a record high of $1,365.23 inApril and subsequently tumbled byover 10 percent, showing growth only now.

In the meantime, the dollar fell againstthe yen followinga CNBC report onThursday citing Trump’s comment toa Wall Street Journal columnist that he might next embark ontrade issue resolution withJapan.

Japan’s major oil companies are getting ready tohalt all crude oil imports fromIran next month overfears Washington will put limitations onthe Asian country, which had previously managed tobe excluded fromthe first rounds ofsanctions bysecuring respective waivers and continued buying a limited amount ofIranian oil.

No less worrisome forJapan, which heavily relies onits exports, namely ofcars, was a proposal and then public consultations overthe contentious issue ofUS’ reciprocal tariffs onan additional $200 billion worth ofChinese goods. The tariffs, followed Beijing’s response toWashington’s first roundof 25-percent duties on818 Chinese items, are expected totake effect soon, though it is not immediately clear when.

Trump has so far challenged a number ofcountries likeMexico, Canada and the European bloc ontrade issues, specifically, onsteel and aluminum imports, most recently taking a dig attheWTO. He urged the multilateral organization to “change their ways” because it has been treating Washington “very badly” recently.

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