Gold rises as pandemic worsens, U.S. elections in focus
· Gold prices gained on Monday on uncertainty surrounding the outcome of Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, while a spike in global coronavirus cases exacerbated fears about an economic recovery, further boosting the safe-haven metal’s appeal.
· Spot gold rose 0.8% to $1,893.13 per ounce , while U.S. gold futures settled up 0.7% at $1,892.50.
· Democrat Joe Biden is leading U.S. President Donald Trump in national opinion polls, but the race is tight in several battleground states, with fears that the results may not be clear on Tuesday night as ballot counting could take days.
· “We are expecting an increase in volatility coming in the next 72 hours. So, because of that people are looking at gold and silver as safe haven play,” said Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures in Chicago.
“If the results are not clear, we can go back to $1,940 an ounce. But regardless of which candidate wins, there are underlying pieces of continued stimulus, central banks are expanding balance sheets, interest rates are remaining low for extended period of time,” Streible said.
· Gold, considered a hedge against inflation and currency debasement, has jumped 25% so far this year amid unprecedented global levels of stimulus during the pandemic.
· Coronavirus cases, meanwhile, continued their grim climb in the United States, while Europe’s total infections crossed 10 million on Sunday.
· “The gap between both the candidates is narrowing, the market is looking if this is going to be resolved on Nov. 3 or drag on for a long time with recounts and is pricing that in,” said Eli Tesfaye, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
However he added, a fast track breakthrough in vaccine could bring the metal’s prices down.
· Silver jumped 1.1% to $23.88 an ounce, platinum gained 1.4% to $860.31, while palladium rose 0.1% to $2,214.80.
· Biden narrowly leads Trump in six swing states before Election Day, poll shows
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden holds narrow leads over President Donald Trump in six states the president aims to defend Tuesday in his bid for a second term, according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll.
The survey released Monday finds the former vice president holding at least a slim edge in all of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all of which Trump won in 2016. Even so, it shows a race within striking distance for the president in most of those electoral college prizes.
All six swing states: Biden 50%, Trump 46%
· U.S. surpasses 95 million early ballots one day before election
· CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
· As U.S. COVID-19 cases break records, weekly deaths rise 3%
The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States hit another record high last week, rising 18% to more than 575,000, while deaths inched up 3%, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports.
· Swiss city of Geneva locks down as COVID surges
· Boris Johnson says there’s ‘no alternative’ as England braces for another lockdown
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned there could be “twice as many deaths over the winter as we saw in the first wave.”
On Saturday, Johnson announced England would go into a one-month lockdown lasting from Nov. 5 until Dec. 2.
The U.K. recently passed 1 million confirmed cases, with deaths rising to 46,807 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It reported a record 26,707 infections on Oct. 21, however the number of deaths is far from where it was during the peak of the outbreak in April.
· EU chair Germany tells parliament to move faster on pandemic recovery cash
Germany, holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency, has urged the European Parliament to speed up talks and quickly agree on 1.8 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion) worth of the bloc’s next budget and a linked pandemic recovery plan.
· Euro zone factories boomed in October as Germany roared: PMI
Manufacturing growth in the euro zone boomed in October but the recovery from severely depressed activity at the height of the coronavirus pandemic was again mostly driven by a buoyant Germany, a survey showed.
Still, IHS Markit’s final Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to 54.8 in October from September’s 53.7, its highest reading since July 2018 and ahead of the 54.4 flash estimate. Anything above 50 indicates growth.
An index measuring output, which feeds into a Composite PMI due on Wednesday and is seen as a good gauge of economic health, bounced to 58.4 from 57.1 in September, comfortably beating its 57.8 flash reading.
“Germany has done spectacularly well over recent months but as the lockdowns begins to impact not only on Germany but its main export market it will take the edge off the recovery,” said Peter Dixon at Commerzbank.
“The fourth quarter for the euro zone as a whole is going to look pretty grim, we are still working through our numbers but it won’t be good.”
There is a high risk the resurgence in coronavirus now underway across Europe would halt the nascent euro zone recovery, a recent Reuters poll showed.
· IMF tells G20 countries to 'keep spending' on COVID-19 crisis
The International Monetary Fund on Monday warned Group of 20 major economies that the coronavirus crisis is not over and called on the United States, Britain and other countries to increase the amount of fiscal spending currently planned.
The IMF last month forecast a 2020 global contraction of 4.4% and a return to growth of 5.2% in 2021, but warned that the situation remained dire and governments should not withdraw stimulus prematurely.
· Hong Kong’s fintech development could push city’s position as global financial center, official says
“First of all, it is about money. Secondly, it’s about talent and, thirdly, it’s about regulation,” Hui said. “So on these three fronts, in fact, we are considering what measures that we need to push forward so as to really grow our fintech ecosystem even further.”
Hong Kong launched a $15.5 million wage subsidy plan in July to encourage companies in the financial sector to hire 1,000 fintech professionals over the next 12 months, the South China Morning Post reported. In exchange, the government will subsidize the salary of one full-time new hire with 10,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,290) every month for a year, according to the newspaper.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters, Worldometers
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