Gold steadies below record $4,600/oz as investors book profits

Gold prices were broadly steady on Tuesday, trading below a record $4,600/ounce level reached in the last session amid sharpened geopolitical and economic uncertainty as investors booked profits. Spot gold traded little changed at $4,593.81 per ounce as of 0357 GMT, while US gold futures for February delivery slipped 0.3% to $4,602.70. Bullion climbed more than 2% to hit an all-time high of $4,629.94 in the previous session as investors piled into safe-haven assets after the Trump administration opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Further fuelling geopolitical worries, US President Trump said on Monday any country that does business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on trade with the US, as Washington weighs its response to the crackdown on the biggest anti-government protests in years in the oil exporting nation.