(Kitco News) – Gold (-0.09%) traded marginally lower heading into the EU open and silver (-0.24%) also loses some ground. Risk sentiment was once again mixed overnight as the Chinese bourses outperformed. The Shanghai Composite closed 0.63% higher while the Nikkei 225 (-0.38%) and ASX (-1.12%) both struggled. In the FX space, the dollar still struggled with the antipodeans performing well (NZD/USD 0.52%).
On the news front, the US Senate election certification is scheduled for Wednesday 1 pm local. At the moment with around 97% of the votes counted the Democrats remain slightly in the lead.
Sticking with the US, outgoing President Trump signed an order banning transactions with eight Chinese software apps including Ant Group’s Alipay in 45 days. This means the order will come into effect when he leaves the White House.
As the Japanese Yen continues to tumble, the Japanese Ministry of Finance officials says currency stability is important. There was a previous statement from the Japanese administration calling on the BoJ to defend the 100.00 area.
In the UK, there was a new COVID-19 record, as 1 in 30 Londoners is estimated to have the virus. A new national lockdown has begun but obviously, there will be a lagging effect before we see any results. The Times also reported that there are more vaccine jabs on the way as the UK aim to vaccinate 13 million people by the middle of February.
There was some data overnight with Chinese Caixin services PMI for December printing at 56.3 vs the previous reading of 57.8. Australian services PMI for the same months marginally fell to 57.0 (exp 57.1).
Looking ahead to today’s session highlights include services and composite PMI’s from the major nations, German CPI, US ADP NFP, oil inventory data (weekly) and the FOMC meeting minutes. We should also hear from BoE’s Bailey.