Risk-off trade prevailed on Friday after Wall Street closed a day earlier with its largest daily decline in three months.

Concerns over a Trump administration meltdown continued to dampen risk sentiment as the U.S. President scrapped plans for a third business panel, putting in doubt his ability to push through infrastructure plans or tax proposals.

Also hurting sentiment, was a new series of terrorist attacks in Spain. In Barcelona, a van rammed into tourists on Thursday evening, killing at least 13 people and injuring 100 others.

Further down the Spanish coast, police took down five suspects in a shootout in Cambrils on Friday in response to what was another planned attack related to the Barcelona incident.

Asian stocks closed mostly lower Friday as equities followed the risk-off scenario set in motion by Wall Street. The Nikkei 222 ended the day off 1.2%.

European shares also traded lower on Friday as airlines and other travel industry stocks were hit by worries over the terrorist attacks. U.S. futures pointed to a flat open with mixed trade.

Political uncertainty and terrorist attacks in Spain drove investors into safe haven assets on Friday.

Gold briefly broke through the $1,300 level on Friday, hitting an intraday high of $1,303.09, its highest level since results of the U.S. presidential elections were announced last November.

Gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $8.37, or around 0.6%, to trade at $1,300.77 by 09:51 GMT.

Oil was largely steady on Friday but remained on track for weekly losses of more than 3% as investors attempted to balance a broad-based sell off with signs that crude supplies may be gradually tightening.

On the bearish side, market players have recently registered OPEC’s difficulties in holding to their production cut agreement as those members exempt from the reduction accord such as Libya or Nigeria continue to increase output. Recent data on overall compliance hit its lowest percentage this year.

On the other hand, despite a 13% jump in production since mid-2016 to 9.5 million bpd, the country's commercial crude inventories have fallen 13% from their March records to below 2016 levels, according to Reuters.

Markets are also keeping a close eye on the ramp up in U.S. shale production.

Baker Hughes will its most recent weekly rig count data later on Friday.

U.S. crude oil futures gained 0.30% to $47.23 at 09:54GMT, while Brent oil traded up 0.14% to $51.10.

In what will be a light day for economic data stateside, investors will focus on the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, which is expected to rise slightly to a preliminary reading of 94.0 this month, from July’s 93.4.

The reading released at comes after data for July released earlier in the week showed the biggest jump in retail sales in the last seven months, bolstering optimism over the U.S. economy.

Investor’s which also watch the reports’ readings on consumer expectations for signs of optimism, while keeping an eye on inflation expectations as the Federal Reserve is widely anticipated to announce balance sheet normalization in September.

In that light, market players will also look for clues on U.S. central bank policy when Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan makes an appearance at 14:15 GMT Friday.