Gold moves higher heading into the EU open

New York (Dec 23)  After another tough session where gold fell 0.87% on Tuesday, heading into the EU session the yellow metal trades 0.32% in the black. Silver is also trading higher by nearly 1% keeping hold of the $25 per ounce handle. The risk sentiment overnight in the Asia-Pac area has been good. The Nikkei 225 (0.33%), ASX (0.66%) and Shanghai Composite (0.76%) all closed higher and DAX futures are flat in early trade on Wednesday.

As expected the news flow is pretty subdued overnight. One of the main stories came from the US as outgoing President Trump said he may not sign the new fiscal stimulus deal unless the cheques that are sent out increase in value from $600 to $2000. House Speaker Pelosi said she would bring this amendment to the floor this week.

On the coronavirus front, AstraZeneca believe their vaccine would still be effective against the new strain of the COVID-19 virus. There is still no real evidence to back this up but nevertheless could calm some investor's nerves.

Sticking with the coronavirus, UK PM Boris Johnson may increase the number of restrictions in the UK and put the whole of the nation in tier 4. At the moment only London and the south-east are on the highest level but the new strain is clearly worrying the UK government.

The Brexit saga is still continuing in the background and the latest headlines seem to be on the positive side. The UK House Secretary Jenrick stated, "I am still reasonably optimistic about a Brexit deal".

Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include US durable goods, Italian consumer confidence, weekly US jobless data, Canadian GDP, US Michigan data,  US new homes sales and DoE's.

KitcoNews