Gold hit a fresh six-year high after the U.S.-China trade fight intensified and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy faces “significant risks” from slowing global growth.

Gold climbed after China announced it will impose additional tariffs in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s latest planned levies. Trump then said he would respond to the new China tariffs later Friday, accelerating gold’s gains and adding to concerns that demand for copper and other industrial metals will be further hurt as the trade war drags on.

Trade-policy uncertainty seems to be playing a role in the global slowdown and in weak manufacturing and capital spending in the U.S., Powell said in the text of remarks Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “We will act as appropriate to sustain the expansion,” he said. That bolstered expectations the central bank will cut U.S. interest rates further.

“That’s a very accommodating statement,” Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago, said by phone. “They’re going to keep this thing going for as long as they can.”

Traders of fed funds futures jacked up their expectations for the amount of easing they expect from the U.S. central bank this year after Powell’s remarks. The outlook for lower rates may help revive investor demand for gold, which erased a weekly loss. Lower rates are a boon for the metal, which doesn’t pay interest.

Gold futures for December delivery rose 1.9% to settle at $1,537.60 an ounce at 1:32 p.m. on the Comex in New York, after falling as much as 0.4%. December copper futures fell 1.1% to $2.5375 a pound on the Comex, the lowest since May 2017, after rising as much as 0.7%.

A gauge of gold miners climbed Friday, led by Toronto-based miners Yamana Gold Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp., while an index of global base-metals companies was trading near an eight-month low.

“The headlines coming out of China and Jackson Hole today, combined with a long weekend in U.K., see people taking some risks off” in the base metals market, Thomas Capalbo, vice president, hedge funds and financial institutions, at Societe Generale SA, said by phone.