Gold prices rose slightly on Wednesday, as the rise in infections with the mutant Omicron boosted its demand as a safe haven for investments.
However, the trading movement remained confined to a limited range, as investors awaited the details of the recent policy meeting of the Federal Reserve (the US central bank), with increasing bets on raising interest rates.
And gold rose in spot transactions 0.2 percent to $ 1818.79 an ounce (at 10:25 GMT), and its price in futures transactions in the US market rose 0.3 percent to $ 1819.50.
The markets are awaiting the details of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on the 14th and 15th of last December, which will be issued (19:00 GMT) today and may shed light on the board’s plan to raise interest rates and ease the stimulus measures that were motivated by the pandemic.
In other precious metals markets, the price of silver settled unchanged at $23.06 an ounce, and the price of platinum rose 0.9 percent to $980 an ounce and palladium 2.1 percent to $1,910.08 an ounce.
And yesterday, Tuesday, gold prices rose, following the rise in US bond yields, supported by bets that the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) would raise interest rates faster than expected, pushed the precious metal to its largest decline in six weeks in the previous session.
And gold rose yesterday, 0.2 percent in spot contracts to $ 1804.40 an ounce, following rising on Monday, to its highest level in more than a month at $ 1831.62, before giving up gains and closing down 1.5 percent.
And US gold futures rose 0.3 percent to 1805 dollars.
“When there is such an increase in bond yields, it undermines the attractiveness of the inflation hedge,” said Ilya Spivak, currency strategist at Daily FX yesterday. “It is not really surprising to see gold starting lower.”
On Monday, gold buying, boosted by higher Omicron hits, counterbalanced pressures from rising US Treasury yields.
The Omicron strain continues to spread in the world, re-imposing some precautionary measures that some countries have recently abandoned, with the expansion of vaccinations in them.
Since the discovery of “Omicron” last November, scientists are racing once morest time to find out whether it causes a less serious case of the disease, and why it is more infectious than the “delta” mutant that was prevalent before it.
There are many reasons for the virus’s ability to spread infection more than others, such as: the length of time during which it remains in the air, its ability to stick to cells, or evade the immune system in the human body.
