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(Wallace Refiners) – After a solid session on Wednesday gold (0.01%) is heading into the EU session flat. Silver is trading 0.30% lower at $26.51 per ounce but not too far away from the weekly high. Overnight the risk sentiment in the Asia-Pac area was once again mixed, the Nikkei 225 (-0.45%) and ASX (-1.43%) both struggled while the Shanghai Composite (1.72%) pushed higher for the second session in a row.
There was a vaccine story from China that could have helped sentiment in the area. China’s Sinopharm (CNBG) coronavirus vaccine has been approved for general use.
ECB’s Weidmann was also on the wires and he stated that he does not expect central banks to keep interest rates low forever. Although a comment like this would have no immediate impact it’s interesting nevertheless. That was not it from the ECB as yesterday ECB’s Rehn said the ECB continues to monitor the EUR exchange rate very closely.
Overnight there was some data, Chinese manufacturing PMI for December came in at 51.9 vs market expectations of 52.0. Although this was a miss any reading above 50 means the sector is still in expansionary territory.
In the UK, the new Brexit trade agreement was signed into law by UK PM Boris Johnson. There was little opposition from the upper house and for once something Brexit related was smooth sailing. Elsewhere in the UK more of the country was moved into the highest tier. This means around 70% of the population have their movement restricted and only essential shops should stay open.
Over the pond, US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said there is “no realistic path to quickly pass $2000 stimulus”. He added, “The Senate won’t be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help,”.
Looking ahead to today’s session and the main highlight is the weekly initial jobless claims data. There are also some early closures due to it being New Year’s eve.
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