Photographer: Carla Gottgens / Bloomberg
Photographer: Carla Gottgens / Bloomberg
Gold fell amid a stronger dollar and the currency’s outlook, as investors assessed the timeline for the US stimulus package.
Janet Yellen, former Federal Reserve Chairman, is expected to confirm the US commitment to market-determined exchange rates when she testifies on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, and will make it clear that the US is not looking for a weaker dollar for competitive advantage, said one report from the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the preparation. One meter of the dollar has risen in the past two weeks.
Yellen’s confirmation hearing as Secretary of the Treasury is scheduled for Jan. 19 before the Senate Treasury Committee, the day before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
The precious metal is down nearly 4% this year as yields on US Treasuries and the dollar rose. Still, the metal remains above USD 1,800 an ounce and is expected to receive support from massive stimulus packages from central banks and governments. Biden is He is pushing for swift action from Congress for his economic aid plan, but he risks delaying it with a federal minimum wage increase that Republicans and business groups have long fought against.
“A stronger US dollar is proving to be a headwind to precious metals prices, despite massive trillion-dollar stimulus proposals to mitigate the adverse effects of Covid-19,” said Avtar Sandu, a senior commodities manager at Phillip Futures Pte.
Spot gold had changed little in Singapore at $ 1,828.22 an ounce by 12:43 a.m., after previously falling 1.3%. Prices ended up 1.1% lower last week. Silver and platinum were up, while palladium was stable.
Meanwhile, like the US. The death toll from Covid-19 approached 400,000, Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said Biden’s promise to deliver 100 million doses of vaccine in 100 days “is absolutely executable case. Vaccinations in the US began on Dec. 14 with health professionals, and 13.7 million injections have been given so far, according to a state-by-state survey from Bloomberg News and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
– With the assistance of Ranjeetha Pakiam