By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Gold stormed past $1,800 for the third time in a week on Wednesday as bulls seized on the precious metal’s upward momentum to drive its prices to new nine-year highs.
Also aiding gold were safe-haven bids as data showed the United States had added a million Covid-19 cases in just a month, while countries spared of the worst of the pandemic earlier, like Sweden, now showed surging death rates.
“Gold is roaring higher as a number of uncertainties to the outlook persist and as the dollar slides,” said Ed Moya at New York-based online trading platform OANDA.
“The Fed has acknowledged that corporate bond buying could slow if market conditions improve further. But the intensifying wave of the virus in the U.S. will likely see that not happen anytime soon,” Moya said, reinforcing expectations that the central bank’s support for the American economy and markets will continue, weighing on the dollar and boosting gold.
U.S. gold futures for August delivery on Comex settled up $10.70, or 0.6%, at $1,820.60. It earlier hit $1,829.65, its highest since September 2011, when it scaled to a record $1,911.60.
Spot gold was up $14.12, or 0.8%, at $1,809.28 by 3:58 PM ET (19:58 GMT). The real-time indicator of bullion prices scaled $1,791.78 earlier in the day, a peak since the record high of $1,920.85 achieved by bullion in September 2011.
Gold was also supported by data showing that it took the United States just 28 days later to reach another million cases of the Covid-19 that brought the total case to over 3 million.
The virus itself is experiencing a new wave in the United States, with some 40,000 new infections being reported daily. Top U.S. pandemics expert Anthony Fauci warned recently that the daily case growth could reach 100,000 without proper social-distancing and other safety measures.
A new model by the University of Washington, meanwhile, predicts 200,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths in the United States by Oct. 1, casting further doubts on economic reopening from lockdowns.
In Sweden, the pandemic is now being blamed for 5,420 deaths, after the country decided to go light on social distancing in a reverse strategy to fight the virus. As a result, by per million people, Sweden has suffered 40% more deaths than the United States, 12 times more than Norway, seven times more than Finland and six times more than Denmark.