Gold Up, Regains Shine Despite Vaccine Approval Retreat
Gold was up on Thursday morning in Asia, regaining its shine even after news of the first approval for a COVID-19 vaccine saw a retreat from the safe-haven asset. Investors are also keeping an eye on developments for the latest U.S. stimulus measures.
Gold futures were up 0.44% at $1,838.20 by 12:10 AM ET (4:10 AM GMT), remaining above the $1,800 mark.
The U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency became the first regulator globally to approve a COVID-19 vaccine. It green-lighted BNT162b2, the vaccine candidate jointly developed by BioNTech SE (F:22UAy) and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), on Wednesday.
The U.S.’ FDA is set to meet for an advisory committee meeting in the following week, and developer Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Inc is also awaiting clearance for its candidate mRNA-1273 in the U.S. and Europe.
Meanwhile, a fresh $908 billion bipartisan proposal is slowly gaining traction as the starting point for Republicans and Democrats to pass the latest stimulus measures, ahead of a Dec. 11 deadline after which the government will shut down.
However, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. President Donald Trump have expressed support for a separate proposal put forth by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after he rejected the $908 billion package.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated on Wednesday, during a second day of testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, that there were no hard feelings between the Fed and Mnuchin over the latter’s sunsetting of emergency lending programs in November.
The Fed and the European Central Bank are both due to convene for their respective policy meetings, the last for 2020, in the following week.
