By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Wednesday morning in Asia as investors turned to safe-haven assets over the fears of the omicron COVID-19 variant. However, higher U.S. Treasury yields and a somewhat improved investor risk appetite countered these concerns and capped the yellow metal’s gains.
Gold futures inched up 0.03% to $1,789.20 by 11:01 PM ET (4:01 AM GMT). The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched up on Wednesday.
U.S. Treasury yields were higher on Tuesday after investors focused on optimistic economic conditions and discounted inflation. An auction of 20-year bonds went better than expected.
Shares were mostly up in Asia on Wednesday but cooled a recent global rally.
The omicron variant continues to spread in Europe, the U.S., and Asia and some countries are re-imposing stricter measures. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to be cautious, but will not impose tighter restrictions ahead of the holidays. France will limit the New Year Eve’s celebrations while Germany will limit gatherings to 10 people.
Across the Atlantic, U.S. President Joe Biden urged Americans to get vaccinated before Christmas.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also likely to authorize COVID-19 treatment pills from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Merck & Co . Inc. (NYSE:MRK) as early as this week., according to Bloomberg.
In Asia Pacific, the Bank of Japan released the minutes from its latest meeting earlier in the day.
In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1% and platinum was down 0.3%, while palladium edged up 0.2%.