Gold Down Over Rising Hopes for U.S. Stimulus Talks

Gold was down on Wednesday morning in Asia, with increasing optimism over U.S. talks for the latest stimulus measures and a COVID-19 vaccine seeing a retreat from the safe-haven yellow metal.

Gold futures were down 0.32% at $1,813.15 by 12:25 AM ET (4:25 AM GMT), remaining over the $1,800 mark. Holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust (P:GLD) also fell 0.3% to 1,191.28 tons on Tuesday, from 1,194.78 tons on Monday.

Optimism grew after House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin held their first talks for the latest stimulus measures since the Nov. 3 presidential elections.

On the Republican side, Senate leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday urged Congress to include a fresh wave of measures in a $1.4 trillion spending bill, aimed at heading off a government shutdown amid COVID-19. McConnell also teased a revised version of his own plan to fellow Republicans.

Emergency lending programs set up by the Federal Reserve during the pandemic could be revived quickly after they expire at year-end, senior New York Federal Reserve official Lorie Logan told a virtual discussion on Tuesday.

Although both Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said that they saw no immediate need for further monetary stimulus, Evans did call for more fiscal support.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell was more cautious, issuing a warning that the U.S. economy remains in a damaged and uncertain state during his testimony at Tuesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing. Powell will testify before Congress again later in the day. The Fed also meets for its policy meeting on Dec. 15 and 16.

Meanwhile, as the number of global COVID-19 cases continues to rise, a plan to inoculate Americans against COVID-19 as soon as mid-December was unveiled on Tuesday.

Developers could potentially meet that deadline, with BioNTech SE (F:22UAy) saying that shipment of the first doses of its candidate BNT162b2, co-developed with Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), could happen “within hours” after approval.

Meanwhile, Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) also announced plans earlier in the week to request clearance for its candidate mRNA-1273 in the U.S. and Europe. Both developers have applied for emergency European Union approval on Tuesday.