By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Wednesday morning in Asia, with falling U.S. Treasury yields countering the impact from slightly improved risk sentiment, and giving the yellow metal a boost.
Gold Futures edge down 0.19% to $1,807.45 by 10:41 PM ET (3:41 AM GMT), and benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields edged lower.
Asia Pacific shares were mostly lower on Wednesday, even as concerns over travel disruptions and store closures due to the omicron COVID-19 variant diminished.
For its part, gold continued on a downward trend over increasing evidence that omicron does not pose a major threat to the global economic recovery and investors retreated from the safe-haven asset.
Omicron isn’t “the same disease we were seeing a year ago,” and even patients who do end up in the hospital spend less time there, according to University of Oxford immunologist John Bell, reinforcing reports about the variant’s overall milder nature.
However, daily COVID-19 cases exceeded 1 million for a second consecutive day with the pressure mounting on healthcare systems.
Gold is set for its first annual loss in three years, after hitting an all-time high in 2020, with central banks beginning to withdraw COVID-19 stimulus packages to curb rising inflation. Although the remaining uncertainty over omicron has somewhat boosted demand for safe-haven assets, concerns over the threat to economic activity and reopening are beginning to die down.
With volumes thin on Wednesday, investors expect this trend to continue and a tight range throughout the remaining trading days of 2021.
In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1%, platinum fell 0.7%, and palladium fell 1.5%.