As the trade war escalates, Asia’s stocks remain stable, and gold reaches a record high.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asia stocks gained on Friday, as global markets struggled to recover from a violent selloff, but gold reached a new high as global trade tensions escalated, making investors apprehensive and prompting a flight to safe-haven assets.

Relief at the prospect of a US government shutdown buoyed markets in early Asian trade, as Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer indicated he would vote to approve a Republican interim funding package, indicating that his party would offer the necessary backing.

U.S. market futures surged substantially in response, with the Nasdaq up 0.87% and the S&P 500 up 0.7%.

The EUROSTOXX 50 futures moved up 0.04%, while the FTSE futures gained 0.1%.

“For today, at least, this news from Congress is positive for market sentiment,” said Alvin Tan, RBC Capital Markets’ head of Asian FX strategy.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose 0.2%, but was still on course to lose more than 2% for the week as global trade conflicts hammered global markets.

In the latest in a long line of tariff threats, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would levy 200% tariffs on European wine and alcohol imports if the EU did not remove retaliatory levies on American whiskey and other items that go into effect next month.

“Trump has made it clear that if anyone retaliates, his counter-escalation will be even sharper,” said Vishnu Varathan, Mizuho’s head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan.

The new discoveries spurred Thursday’s severe selloff on Wall Street, as well as confirmation that the S&P 500 (.SPX)b was in correction, only a week after the Nasdaq (.IXIC) verified the same.

Wall Street’s main indexes closed substantially down on Thursday, with the Dow losing 1.3%.

“I believe Trump 2.0 differs significantly from Trump 1.0. This time, the president is willing to let US markets and the economy suffer while he pursues his ‘America first’ objectives,” said Michael Strobaek, global chief investment officer at Lombard Odier.

Typical safe-haven investments, such as gold, have benefited from the developing trade war, with the yellow metal reaching a record high of $2,990.09 per ounce on Friday. It was on track to gain 2.6% this week.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) recovered early losses to advance 0.12%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) rose 1%, but was on track for a 2.3% weekly fall. China’s CSI300 blue-chip index (.CSI300) gained 1.4% and was expected to increase 0.6% this week.