Gold and silver lose ground heading into the EU session despite some USD weakness
Gold and silver trade marginally lower heading into the EU session on Wednesday despite some weakness in the USD overnight. Risk sentiment was generally positive as the ASX (0.72%) and Nikkei (0.26%) closed higher and the Shanghai Composite was the laggard closing just under flat. Platinum (0.50%), palladium (0.54%) and copper (0.20%) are all trading in the black this morning as it seems that only gold and silver could not take advantage overnight.
The main story from late in the US session was more optimism about a US fiscal coronavirus deal. Senator Mitch McConnell said significant progress on COVID-19 relief is being made, while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says COVID-19 relief negotiations moving in the right direction.
There was also some data overnight, Japanese preliminary manufacturing PMI for December printed at 49.7 vs the analyst consensus of 48.9. Their services PMI was a touch lower than last months reading of 47.8 at 47.2. The Australian readings were positive as manufacturing PMI came in at 56.0 vs expected 55.8 and services PMI hit 57.4 vs the expected reading of 55.1.
On the Brexit front, there was some optimism from the Irish PM. He said he was hopeful that a deal could be reached by the weekend. He also stated "I would like hopefully by the weekend that we would have clarity around this and certainly it's important that we do get some clarity so that we can then get any deal that might come over the line ratified"
Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include PMI's from the major nations, UK CPI, EU wages, EU trade balance, Canadian wholesale sales, Canadian security purchases data, NZ GDP and the Fed rate decision. We are also set to get comments from Fed Chair Powell, ECB's Schnabel, ECB's De Guindos, ECB's Enria and German Buba Vice President Buch.
By Rajan Dhall
For Kitco News
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