COMEX gold is witnessing a mild pull back after registering a fresh record high on Thursday morning in Asia amid continued safe haven appeal amid persistent tensions between China and the US related to trade policies. The trade-war escalation turned sentiment sour as the US President Donald Trump ordered an investigation to apply tariffs on rare earth imports, escalating the dispute with China. Meanwhile, deepening loses in the dollar index on uncertainty of the possible repercussions of the trade war on US economy is further giving impetus to metals including gold. Gold pull back is mostly to the tune of dollar’s mild upside after US data showed better-than-expected US retail sales, which rose 1.4% month-over-month in March to $734.9 billion, above the forecasted 1.3%. Annual growth stood at 4.6%, pointing to resilient consumer activity. COMEX gold is currently quoting at $3354.50 an ounce, down 0.24% on the day following an over 3% surge yesterday.