By Adam Claringbull
Investing.com – Gold was up on Thursday morning in Asia after further losses in late Wednesday trading. COVID-19 vaccine optimism has been drawing attention away from gold, but a weakening dollar has returned attention to the safe-haven metal.
Gold futures were up 0.37% at $1,868.60 by 12:26 AM ET (4:26 AM GMT).
Positive news about Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech's (F:22UAy) COVID-19 vaccine has been encouraging risk-positive investment across global markets. However, the realization that a publicly available vaccine is still some way off is beginning to pull investors back toward safe-haven assets.
Gold fell 5% after the vaccine results were announced on Monday, the largest one-day fall for seven years. Market sentiment has been toward risk, with steep climbs in stocks over the period since the announcement. However, investors are starting to turn to risk-averse assets as caution reasserts itself.
Global COVID-19 numbers continue to drive upwards, putting any near- to mid-term hopes for a global recovery solidly on the backburner, providing a stabilizing effect for gold. Johns Hopkins University data has global COVID-19 cases now past 52 million, with 1.28 million deaths.
In the U.S. there are mounting concerns about the transfer of power from current President Donald Trump to incoming President-elect Joe Biden. At present, the Trump administration is refusing to concede defeat, and has yet to allow the Biden team access to information held by federal departments.
European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde announced the bank’s plans to focus on emergency bond purchases and cheap loans for banks as a major plank in its policies for assisting eurozone economies. Lagarde will join other central bankers including Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the online “Central Banks in a Shifting World” forum later in the day. Central bankers and finance ministers from the Group of 20 are also due to convene on Friday for an extraordinary meeting to discuss measures to help nations struggling to repay their debts.