Photographer: Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg
Gold ticked higher after the US house passed a bill to boost household checks to $ 2,000, a proposal backed by President Donald Trump that is pushing up the rapidly rising costs of pandemic measures. The dollar declined.
The plan to increase payments from $ 600 is in line with Trump’s surprise request last week when he threatened to turn down the entire spending package. The dollar weakened after the House of Representatives backed the plan, which would increase household help spending by about $ 464 billion.
Gold is on its way to its first monthly profit in five as optimism about coronavirus vaccines gives way to renewed bets on inflation and a weaker dollar. Economic dislocation and increasing global stimulus spending helped gold hit its best year since 2010.
As trading volumes were still thin during the holiday season, “precious metals traders followed the direction of the US dollar in the absence of new fundamental drivers,” Philip Futures wrote in a note. The US currency hit its lowest since 2018 earlier this month.
Spot gold rose 0.3% to $ 1,878.79 an ounce at 10:46 a.m. in Shanghai, after a volatile day on Monday that ended with a loss of 0.5%
The mood in the House takes a new turn at the end of the year in Washington as it grapples with the pandemic spending. Senate Republicans who previously opposed larger emergency checks must now weigh up the proposal backed by their outgoing president.
Silver rose 0.6% after finishing at its highest since September Monday, while platinum and palladium also rose.
– With the help of Martin Ritchie