By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia, with investors turning to the safe-haven after the U.S. saw a record number of daily COVID-19 cases.
The U.S. reported over 60,000 cases on Thursday, with Texas, Florida and California among the states with record numbers of new cases.
Gold futures were up by 0.15% at $1,806.50 by 12:29 AM ET (5:29 AM GMT), ending the week above the $1,800 mark.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues its global rampage, with over 12.2 million cases and 550,000 deaths globally as of July 10, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The numbers further dampened investor hopes of an economic recovery from the virus, which was compounded when some cities were forced to reimpose lockdown measures. Hong Kong tightened social distancing measures on Thursdays, following Beijing and Melbourne, to curb a fresh outbreak of the virus in the city
The prospect of further stimulus measures from central banks continues to give the yellow metal a boost.
“These stimulus (measures) are not going away very soon. If we see the global supply chain, it has been massively disrupted and that disruption adds to inflation as well,” Ryan McKay, commodity strategist at TD Securities, told CNBC.
With $2 trillion worth of existing stimulus measures due to expire at the end of July, investors will be looking for the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next move.