Gold Up amid U.S. Stimulus Doubts

Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia’s precious metals over disappointing jobs data from the U.S. and stimulus uncertainty. In addition, Brexit talks concern remains.

By 12:47 AM ET (4:47 AM GMT), gold futures were up 0.23% at $1,841.70. The dollar was down on Friday. Usually, it moves inversely to the yellow metal.

Markets saw 853,000 jobless claims filed during the past week. It was more than the 725,000 in forecasts and the previous week’s 716,000 claims. 

The data, released on Thursday, showed that the number of claims rose as more businesses shut down. This was due to the ever-increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in the U.S.

Talks between the Democrats and Republicans over the stimulus measures continue and with a Dec. 11 deadline. Striking a deal before the deadline will avert a government shutdown. 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s $916 billion proposal to help the economy has the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, is supporting an alternate $908 billion plan. The plan is still in the process of drafting by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Policy Meetings and Deadlines

The European Central Bank (ECB) deployed another round of monetary stimulus. It has totaled EUR500 billion ($605.19 billion), according to reports. The bank will continue its ongoing bond purchase stimulus by EUR500 billion euros to EUR1.85 trillion. 

Moreover, it will extend its support program until at least March 2022 from the current earliest end date of mid-2021. This was a statement from the ECB after its policy meeting on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the Federal Reserve also convened for its policy meeting.

Furthermore, the U.K. and the European Union are working to reach a Brexit trade agreement with a Sunday deadline.

On the vaccine front, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is closer to approving a COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday. Outside advisers voted 17-4 to endorse the emergency use of BNT162b2. The drug is the COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech SE (F:22UAy).

The U.S. FDA is expected to authorize the emergency use of the vaccine within days. Moreover, vaccine distribution and inoculations in the country are expected to begin almost shortly thereafter.

In energy commodities news, a spike in the U.S. crude stockpiles proves that there’s still a lot of supply.  But all that went unnoticed as the bulls ran via the market this week.

They were quite encouraged by signs that Asian demand is strong. India’s largest refiner stated that it was already operating at 100% capacity. That is, of all its nine units for the first time since early in the year.