News Bites
Gold and silver move lower heading into the EU session
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver are trading lower leading into the EU open. Gold looks like its heading towards the previous wave low on the daily chart at $1802.47/oz. Silver is trading at $26.70/oz and has pared nearly all of the move following the "Reddit Short Squeeze" trade.
The risk sentiment overnight was poor following a mixed lead from Wall Street. The Nikkei 225 fell 1.06%, ASX dropped 0.87% and the Shanghai Composite traded 0.44% in the red.
In FX markets the greenback was the best performer and it traded higher against all the majors apart from the Australian dollar. Despite the strength in the dollar base metals traded well overnight with copper moving 0.36% in the black but the best performing metal was aluminium which moved 0.66% higher.
Overnight there was some positive data in Australia. The latest Australian business confidence reading for Q4 came in at 14 vs the previous reading of -8. The export data however for December 2020 missed expectations of +6% to hit +3%.
From the US it was reported that the US House of Representatives passed a fast-track Biden 1.9tln relief plan. Biden's party has a majority in the House but the Democrat margin in the Senate is finer. Biden is apparently not backing down on the $1,400 stimulus cheque idea.
We also heard from Fed's Mester who said the Fed is 'in a good spot now' with monetary policy. Fed's Evans added that 3% inflation wouldn't be a problem. Gold usually does well in times of inflation so let's see how this plays out.
On the COVID-19 front, fresh lockdown measures were announced in the Australian state of Victoria after 3 new cases were reported.
In Italy, former central banker Mario Draghi accepted the mandate to try to form a new government in Italy. He now has the challenging task of forming a coalition government.
Looking out for the rest of the session highlights include the ECB economic bulletin, UK construction PMI, EU retail sales, BoE rate decision, US weekly initial jobless claims and comments from Fed's Daly and RBA's Lowe.
