By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Wednesday in Asia with some countries announcing the loosening of months-long COVID-19 lockdown measures.
Gold futures fell 0.53% to $1,714.70 by 11:28 PM ET (04:28 AM GMT) as increased risk appetite caused investors to retreat from the yellow metal.
Investors will also be paying close attention as the U.S. Federal Reserve ends its meeting on Wednesday and the European Central Bank meets on Thursday.
Some investors were positive that gold would continue to uphold its safe-haven reputation.
“While the broader macro backdrop remains supportive for gold prices in the near term, they’re tracking real yields most closely. U.S. treasury yields are ticking higher this morning and that has ended up weighing down gold prices,” Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) Bank analyst Suki Cooper told CNBC.
“Safe-haven buying has continued to support gold primarily through ETF inflows and continued retail investor demand ... So if we see different economies starting to reopen, we might see some of that safe haven demand starting to ease.”
Meanwhile, Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) analysts said in their note, “Even when the lockdown is lifted, the world will still be far from any kind of normality. The bigger risk then is economic collapse. To counter this, governments around the globe are likely to continue spending unparalleled sums of money – most of which will be created by the central banks. Gold should remain in demand as a crisis currency in this environment, as reflected in ongoing exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows.”