Gold prices sank further Wednesday and major stock markets mostly dropped on fresh economic jitters caused by China-US trade uncertainty and some weak company earnings.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was a rare climber as the pound dropped on better-than-expected UK inflation data that signalled another potential interest-rate cut from the Bank of England this year.

But after Chinese stock indices ended lower, major eurozone equity markets were in the red in midday trading.

Focus was very much on gold, with traders "desperately trying to gauge whether... (Tuesday's) historical collapse was indicative of a new period of weakness or simply a case of blowing off steam after a dramatic surge into record highs", said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

Gold, seen as a s

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