Gold near 2-week high as rising COVID-19 cases boost U.S. stimulus hopes

Gold prices held steady near a two-week high on Tuesday as mounting COVID-19 cases and fresh restrictions boosted hopes for a U.S. pandemic stimulus package.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was little changed at $1,863.30 per ounce by 0058 GMT, having jumped as much as 1.7% to $1,868.25 on Monday. U.S. gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,867.70.


* The U.S. Congress will vote this week on a stopgap funding bill to provide more time to reach a deal on COVID-19 relief, while U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said there were signs of progress in talks on a bipartisan bill.

* California on Monday faced a raft of new COVID-19 restrictions, while a ban on indoor restaurant dining loomed in New York City as the United States braced for another surge during the upcoming holidays.

* The Japanese government will compile a new COVID-19 economic stimulus package totalling 73.6 trillion yen ($708 billion) with fiscal measures at 40 trillion yen ($385 billion), Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday.

* Gold is seen as a hedge against inflation that could result from large stimulus.

* Britain will start rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday.

* British and EU leaders will meet face-to-face to try to seal a post-Brexit trade deal after failing to narrow their differences on Monday, with a senior British government source saying there was every chance a deal would not be reached.

* SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.25% to 1,179.78 tonnes on Monday from 1,182.70 tonnes on Friday.

* Silver was steady at $24.51 per ounce and palladium was little changed at $2,330.71, while platinum rose 0.4% to $1,025.00.