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TOKYO (Reuters) &#8211; Gold soared to an all-time high on Monday as worsening diplomatic ties between China and the United States rattled investors and fired up demand for the safe-haven metal, while stock market sentiment was mixed ahead of corporate earnings.



European stocks are expected to claw back some of their sharp losses on Friday, with Euro Stoxx 50 futures up 0.2%.



In Asia, stocks were mixed as a 10% rally in Taiwanese chip heavyweight TSMC cheered some other tech shares across the region, which helped prop up the broader market with MSCI’s ex-Japan Asia-Pacific index rising 0.4%.



TSMC’s surge came after U.S. rival Intel signalled it may give up making its own components after falling far behind schedule developing its newest technology.



“Chipmaking machine makers may see reduced demand from Intel for now but as the jump in TSMC shows, markets are not pessimistic about the semiconductor industry,” said Yasuo Imanaka, chief analyst at Rakuten Securities.



Elsewhere, there was less enthusiasm with mainland Chinese shares giving up most of their early gains, with CSI300 index last up 0.1%, after steep losses on Friday.



S&amp;P500 futures were last up 0.4% in choppy trade while Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.5%.



Global shares had lost steam late last week after Washington ordered China’s consulate in Houston to close, prompting Beijing to react in kind by closing the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.



U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took fresh aim at China, saying Washington and its allies must use “more creative and assertive ways” to press the Chinese Communist Party to change its ways.



“U.S. President (Donald) Trump used to say China’s President Xi Jinping is a great leader. But now Pompeo’s wording is becoming so aggressive that markets are starting to worry about further escalation,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.



Gold rose 1.6% to a record high of $1,943 per ounce, surpassing a peak touched in September 2011, as Sino-U.S. tensions boosted the allure of safe haven assets, especially those not tied to any specific country.



The yellow metal is also helped by aggressive monetary easing around the world since the pandemic plunged the global economy into a recession.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">MORE STIMULUS</h3>



Hopes for a quick U.S. economic recovery are fading as coronavirus infections showed few signs of slowing.



That means the economy could capitulate without fresh support from the government, with some of the earlier steps such as enhanced jobless benefits due to expire this month.



Investors hope U.S. Congress will agree on a deal before its summer recess but there are some sticking points including the size of stimulus and enhanced unemployment benefits.



U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the package will contain extended unemployment benefits with 70% “wage replacement”.



Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, want enhanced benefits of $600 per week to be extended and look to much bigger stimulus compared with the Republicans’ $1 trillion plan.



Concerns about the U.S. economic outlook have also started to weigh on the dollar.



The dollar index dropped 0.4% to its lowest level in nearly two years.



The euro gained 0.4% to $1.1697, hitting a 22-month high, after a European agreement on a recovery fund last week supported sentiment toward the common currency.



Against the yen, the dollar slipped 0.5% to 105.605 yen, a four-month low while the British pound hit a 4 1/2-month high of $1.2832.Slideshow&nbsp;(2 Images)



Oil prices were capped on worries about the worsening Sino-U.S. relations.



Brent futures slipped 0.05% to $43.32 per barrel while U.S. crude futures were flat at $41.29.



Editing by Sam Holmes

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Gold hits record high, stocks mixed as U.S.-China ties worsen

MONTREAL (Reuters) &#8211; A pick-up in leisure trips and easing European travel restrictions are driving demand for business jet flights this summer, fueling cautious hopes for a rebound in an industry hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, executives and forecasters said.



Commercial and business aviation are both seeing improved domestic traffic this summer. But private flights, which carry smaller groups and promise wealthy passengers less risk of exposure to the coronavirus, have generally fared better than commercial airlines since the start of the pandemic.



U.S. business aviation traffic is down around 20% year to date through July 19 on an annual basis, compared to a decline in U.S. commercial airline traffic of 48% over the same period, according to FlightAware data.



Adam Twidell, chief executive at Private Fly, a global booking service for charter flights, said his company’s booking levels are around 80% of last year’s mark in Europe, and over 100% in the U.S., helped by inquiries from new passengers.



Nw customers, including those who normally fly first class on airlines, now make up around 60% of the company’s flight bookings compared with around a quarter normally.



“We know that a considerable number of them have not flown privately before,” Twidell said.



Private jet charter VistaJet said it recorded a 153% increase for European departures between May and June and expects a similar increase for July.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">GREEN SHOOTS</h3>



Business aviation flights in Europe could be down just 10% this summer compared with the same period a year earlier, helped by pent-up leisure travel demand and limited selection of commercial flights, said Richard Koe, managing director of data research and consulting company WINGX Advance GmbH. By comparison, European flights were down 15% in July and 30% in June on an annual basis, Koe said.



But industry executives cautioned that the green shoots of demand for private aviation will only continue into the fall if there is a pick-up in company travel.



“Personal travel is the driving force on both continents at the moment as business travel continues to be down significantly,” said Patrick Gallagher, a marketing executive for Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s NetJets, which is seeing improved European demand following the easing of travel restrictions last month.



“Relaxation in travel restrictions certainly played a part in that, but the seasonality of demand in Europe also led to the later, steeper recovery,” he said.









Business jet makers are waiting to see if the revival in flights could eventually lead to new orders. For now, charters are using existing fleets to meet demand.



While jet makers are seeing little appetite for new plane sales, firm orders are not being canceled, which points to some stability, two industry sources said.



Business jet makers, like General Dynamics Corp’s Gulfstream Aerospace, Textron Aviation and Bombardier, have cut jobs and some forecasters expect a 30% decline in deliveries this year.

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BANGUI (Reuters) &#8211; Deposed former Central African Republic President Francois Bozize announced on Saturday his candidacy for the December presidential vote despite being under U.N. sanctions and subject to an arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity.



He made the expected announcement in a speech to a large crowd of supporters at a congress of his party Kwa na Kwa (Work, Nothing But Work) in the capital Bangui.



The 73-year-old former general and army chief was overthrown in a 2013 rebellion by a coalition of mainly Muslim rebels from the north, plunging the majority Christian nation into a violent civil war and an acute and ongoing humanitarian crisis.



“The country needs a man of experience, peace and conviction,” Bozize said in the speech that criticised the tenure of current president, Faustin-Archange Touadera.



Bozize first took power after a 2003 coup and served 10 years as president, before fleeing the country in 2013. The new administration sought his arrest for alleged crimes against humanity and incitement to genocide, but has not moved to detain him since he returned from exile late last year.



It is not clear how the warrant or foreign sanctions will affect his candidacy. In January, Bozize said he would ask the United Nations to lift the sanctions imposed in 2014 over his alleged support for ‘anti-balaka’ Christian militias.



Touadera, who was elected in 2016, is expected to seek a second term in the election but has not yet confirmed he will run. The first round of the race is scheduled for December 27.



Most of the diamond-rich country remains beyond government control as rival militias continue to clash. The violence has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes.

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Deposed Central African Republic leader announces presidential bid

(Reuters) &#8211; One person was killed when several shots were fired amid a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Austin, Texas, on Saturday, authorities said.



Footage posted during a Facebook Live showed the moment when several shots rang out in the Texas capital as about 100 people marched and chanted, “Fists up! Fight back!”



Austin police and emergency medical services said on Twitter that one person was killed during the shooting. There were no other deaths or people shot, according to the EMS department.



Initial reports indicate the suspect was carrying a rifle and shot at the victim, who was in his car, police told a briefing. The suspect has been detained, they said.



Protests against racism and police brutality were sparked worldwide following the May killing of African-American George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while detaining him.

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One person shot, killed during Black Lives Matter protest in Texas

SEATTLE (Reuters) &#8211; Dozens were arrested and many police injured in clashes around Seattle’s biggest Black Lives Matter protest in weeks on Saturday, police said, with a renewed energy sparked by violent clashes between activists and federal agents in nearby Portland, Oregon.



Police said officers used non-lethal weapons in attempts to disperse the thousands of marchers in the late afternoon after some protesters set fire to the construction site for a King County juvenile detention facility and courthouse.



By 10 p.m.(0500 GMT), police had “made 45 arrests in connection with today’s riot in the East Precinct,” the Seattle Police wrote in a Twitter post.



It said “21 officers sustained injuries after being struck by bricks, rocks mortars/other explosives. Most officers were able to return to duty. One was treated at a hospital for a knee injury.”



Earlier the police had said they were working to secure access for the city’s fire department to the blaze, which it said was started by about a dozen people who were part of a large group of demonstrators.



President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he expanded the deployment of federal police to Seattle, enraging local officials and igniting anger among protesters.



“We saw what was happening in Portland and we wanted to make sure in our city we were standing in solidarity with other moms,” said Lhorna Murray, who attended on behalf of the newly formed Wall of Moms Seattle, replicating a tactic from the Portland protests where mothers, dressed in yellow, form a human wall between protesters and law enforcement.



The tactics of federal officers in Portland have drawn the ire of local leaders and Democrats in Congress, who say those officers are using excessive force and complain of overreach by the Trump administration.



U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington Brian Moran said in a statement on Friday that federal agents are stationed in Seattle to protect federal properties and the work done in those buildings.



The Trump administration has also sent federal police to Chicago, Kansas City and Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the objections of those mayors.

Seattle Black Lives Matter clashes spark 45 arrests, 21 police injured

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LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; Shoppers in England were ordered to wear face coverings for the first time on Friday as new rules came into force, albeit with the government relying on customers’ common sense to stick to the policy rather than active policing.A woman wears a protective mask next to a sign urging to wear face coverings at a store, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, Britain July 24, 2020. REUTERS/Simon Dawson



The requirement, announced on July 13, marks the latest step in Britain’s slow acceptance of the benefits of face coverings in preventing the spread of COVID-19.



“I don’t like them, but if it keeps people safe you’ve got to do it,” said retiree Michael James, wearing a black face covering.



“I can’t understand how I didn’t have to wear one yesterday and I have to today. What’s the difference in the two days? But, yeah, if it cuts it down, anything.”



Some retailers, including supermarkets and coffee shop chains, said they supported the rules and would ask customers to abide by them, but it would not be up to staff to enforce them.



The move comes as deaths and new cases drop and the government encourages people back to work.



Asked how the rules should work, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We should rely on the massive common sense of the British people&#8230; The people understand the value of face masks in confined spaces.”



Police can fine shoppers 100 pounds ($127) if they refuse to wear a mask, but the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank and file officers, said enforcement should be a last resort.



“I’ve been into the supermarket this morning. There were some people wearing masks and some people not wearing masks. I was,” said former teacher Helen Curran.



Britons were initially told there was no compelling evidence masks helped to stop spread the virus, but that position has gradually been reversed, first with a requirement to wear them on public transport, and now in shops.

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England’s shoppers ordered to wear face coverings

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