Gold and Silver Towards High into the EU Session

Spot gold climbed 0.26%, while silver gained 0.53% at the start of the week during the Asian session. Japan is off for Workers Day, and the sentiment is quite positive. However, the ASX is currently trading 0.34% higher and the Shanghai Composite is performing well, up by more than 1%.

According to reports, US President-elect Biden will be naming Tony Blinken as secretary of state. Blinken has previously served in the office as the United States Deputy Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017.

Meanwhile, on the Brexit front, the European Union believes that the final agreement over the Brexit deal is at 95%. Albeit, uncertainties remained in three key areas: governance, fisheries, competition rules. In the week ahead, markets should keep an eye on these three subjects.

Furthermore, the United Kingdom might give regulatory approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine this week, according to reports. This could mean that the government may begin to roll out as soon as December this year. 

Moreover, that would come as a welcome relief for the battered economy. The vulnerable generations and population have been hard-hit.  Hopes remain for any normalcy as Christmas time approaches.

Oil Prices Continue to Rise On Vaccine Hopes

Oil prices extended their gains on November 23, 2020. Traders and investors expected a possible recovery in crude demand after successful COVID-19 vaccine trials. The prices, however, were contained in various countries due to the renewed lockdowns.

Hopes that the OPEC+ and the other producers will maintain crude output in check also enhanced sentiment. 

By 0436 GMT, Brent crude futures gained about 21 cents, or 0.5%, to $45.17 a barrel. The U.S. WTI crude was up to 10 cents, or around 0.2%, to trade at $42.52 a barrel. Both of these benchmarks hit 5% up last week. 

A recommendation was given by U.S. healthcare workers. Their first COVID-19 inoculations are recommended to start within a day or two of the regulatory consent in December. 

This was explained by a top official of the government’s vaccine development effort on November 22.

It’s possible for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the mid-December mass distribution of the vaccine. This was according to Operation Warp Speed’s chief scientific adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui.

Manufactured by German company BioNTech and Pfizer Inc, the mass distribution will unveil the biggest inoculation campaign in American history.