Gold prices inched up on Monday helped by a softer dollar and mounting coronavirus cases in the United States that escalated concerns of the pandemic’s impact on the pace of economic recovery.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent to $ 1,888.91 per ounce by 0042 GMT.
* U.S. gold futures were up 0.1 per cent at $ 1,888.30.
* The dollar index was down 0.1 per cent , while Asia’s stock markets opened higher on vaccine optimism.
* U.S. President-elect Joe Biden‘s top advisers called for urgent action to address the nation’s “deeply alarming” COVID-19 crisis on Sunday, while the number of infection cases in the United States crossed the 11-million mark.
* U.S. consumer sentiment fell unexpectedly in early November as households worried about their finances, the resurgent pandemic and the depleted fiscal stimulus, dimming the economy‘s outlook.
* President Donald Trump on Sunday briefly acknowledged losing the U.S. election in a morning Twitter post but then backtracked, saying he concedes “nothing,” and vowing to keep up a court fight that election-law experts say is unlikely to succeed.
* Japan’s economy grew an annualised 21.4 per cent in the third quarter, data showed on Monday, rebounding sharply from a record postwar slump.
* Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust , the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.42 per cent to 1,234.32 tonnes on Friday.
* Consumers flocked to jewellery shops again in India last week to snap up Diwali and Dhanteras festival deals, with a retreat in prices also adding to the sparkle in the world’s second biggest bullion consumer.
* Silver rose 0.2 per cent to $ 24.68 per ounce. Platinum was up 0.3 per cent at $ 891.46, while palladium gained 0.4 per cent to $ 2,333.01.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0200 China Urban Investment (YTD) YY Oct
0200 China Industrial Output YY Oct
0200 China Retail Sales YY Oct
1100 EU Reserve Assets Total Oct
Key banking/govt official to speak at the 23rd Euro Finance
Week conference in Frankfurt
