Gold holds steady as virus wave offsets vaccine hopes

Gold prices were little changed on Friday, as fears of an economic impact due to a surge in global cases of COVID-19 countered optimism from the developments in a potential vaccine.

FUNDAMENTALS

Spot gold was steady at $1,876.92 per ounce by 0044 GMT. It was headed for its worst weekly performance since late-September, declining 3.8% so far.


U.S. gold futures were up 0.1% at $1,874.50.

The dollar index held steady but was on track for a 0.7% weekly gain.

The heads of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank welcomed the encouraging results in trials of a vaccine candidate for COVID-19 but stressed that the economic outlook will remain uncertain.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a seven-month low last week, but the pace of decline has slowed and further improvement could be limited by higher infections and lack of additional fiscal stimulus.

Top Democrats in U.S. Congress urged renewed negotiations over a multitrillion-dollar coronavirus aid proposal, but a top Republican immediately rejected their approach as too expensive.

European officials warned against COVID-19 complacency and said measures to control a surge in infections must continue.

More than a dozen U.S. states have doubled their COVID-19 case loads in the last 14 days, compared with the previous two-week period, while the global tally has crossed 52.45 million.

The London Bullion Market Association is threatening to stop bullion from countries including the United Arab Emirates entering the mainstream market if they fail to meet regulatory standards, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

Silver rose 0.1% to $24.26 per ounce. Platinum was steady at $879.26, while palladium was 0.2% higher at $2,334.99.