he gold price rose for a 3^rd straight day today, following on from last week’s gains, on the back of weak US data which many predict will delay further rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve.

At 4.05pm(GMT) gold was trading at $1228 up from $1218 in yesterday’s trading.

One of the biggest barometers for the Fed on the question of interest rate hikes is the jobs market and its continuing and sustainable strength.

On Friday, the non-farm payrolls actually came in above expectations, but it was the slowdown in wage growth that had investors worried as this may lead to reduced consumer spending which would force the Fed to temporarily halt any rate hikes.

This news is good for gold, as it tends to do well it a low interest rate environment as profit in the precious metal can only be achieved through capital gains.

Another factor supporting the gold price at the moment is Donald Trump and his wild policies which is a stark turnaround from a few months ago, when gold was hammered after the US president announced some of his planned policies.

It seemed that they were a good idea at the time, but now reality has set in and many are starting to predict that some of the policies are unworkable, or even illegal which was proven last week when a US judge canceled Trump’s immigration ban.

There are also worries that inflation may spike under Trump which traders may take advantage of by hedging their bets with gold,

"For years, gold was the inflation play and the fear play, and I would say that we probably had a bit of both over the past few months, regardless of what end of the political spectrum you're on," noted Zachary Karabell, head of global strategy at Envestnet,