Gold prices dropped on Thursday on hopes of a thaw in U.S.-Sino relations and on increasing hopes that a 'hard Brexit' scenario can be avoided. News that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the U.S. on Jan. 30-31 for the next round of trade talks gave investors hope that a potential agreement between the world’s two largest economies was moving forward. The news was a welcome counterpoint to news of a U.S. criminal investigation into telecoms equipment supplier Huawei. The U.S. is due to raise tariffs on a further $200 billion of Chinese imports in March unless the two countries can resolve their differences on trade. The recent impasse has supported gold, considered a safe haven in times of geopolitical tension. Gold futures for February delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $3.65 or 0.28%, to $1,290.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's victory on Wednesday against a no confidence vote led analysts to speculate that the risk of the U.K. exiting the European Union without a deal had diminished. That was despite the fact that May’s agreement with the EU over Brexit was rejected a day earlier by the U.K. parliament in a record-breaking defeat.