Gold slips as likely Republican Senate dents large stimulus hopes
· Gold prices fell on Wednesday as bets that the Democrats will be unable to take control of the U.S. Senate in the razor-edge American election dashed hopes for a larger U.S. coronavirus stimulus.
· Spot gold fell 0.7% to $1,896.02 per ounce. U.S. gold futures settled down 0.7% at $1,896.20.
· Prices fell more than 1% earlier in the session as the dollar emerged as the favoured safe haven, with President Donald Trump falsely claiming victory with millions of votes still uncounted in the tight presidential race.
· “It’s becoming quite expected that the senate is not going to shift towards the democrats and now that we’re realistically in a divided government scenario, we’re unlikely to get the same type of stimulus that the market was hoping for,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.
“But we’ll still get something nonetheless. And let’s not forget that the Federal Reserve is extremely accommodative. There are other routes to stimulus and not all of them are through the U.S. Congress,” Melek added.
· Although Joe Biden is tipped to win the election, the Democrats appeared to be falling short in their attempts to take control of the U.S. Senate.
· Biden is expected to inject large amounts of stimulus to ease the economic fallout of the pandemic. Gold is considered a hedge against inflation and currency debasement, which are likely to result from a large stimulus.
· The dollar gave up early gains against rivals, while stocks rallied as markets waited for the election outcome.
· “As this election process is starting to drag down, we’re starting to see that there is a slight edge to a Biden victory outcome and that’s why we saw the dollar paring its gains,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.
“We wanted to have election certainty and obviously didn’t get that. Everyone is trying to figure out how things are going to unfold and the big risk is that we go to the courts ... that is going to drive the safe-haven demand.”
· Silver fell 1.4% to $23.84. Platinum rose 0.1% to $867.34 and palladium climbed 0.3% to $2,290.42.
· CORONAVIRUS CRISIS :
Total confirmed cases: More than 48,412,087
Total deaths: At least 1,230,101
US cases: At least 9,799,229 (+106,263) and deaths: 239,820 (+1,192)
· Election 2020: Biden holds slight leads in Nevada and Wisconsin as vote count slows to a trickle
Election Day has now carried over into Wednesday morning with no clear winner emerging yet in a tight contest.
With polls now closed, President Donald Trump is projected to win Ohio, Florida and Texas, while former Vice President Joe Biden is ahead in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin. The races in Georgia and North Carolina are too close to call as Trump holds slight leads.
Attention is now turning to the industrial Midwest, but final results may not come for Michigan and Wisconsin until later Wednesday morning. Pennsylvania may not be called until later in the week.
· Investors must be careful to avoid being ‘whiplashed’ in close election race, economist warns
Investors should tread carefully to avoid being “whiplashed” by ongoing market “confusion,” economists have told CNBC, as the race to the White House appears likely to drag on for days.
The winner of the U.S. election remains too close to call on Wednesday morning.
With polls now closed, President Donald Trump is projected to win Florida, Ohio and Texas, while former Vice President Joe Biden voiced confidence he would ultimately prevail.
Shortly after Biden addressed his supporters, Trump falsely claimed an election victory. His remarks came with millions of legitimate ballots still left to count.
Many market participants had expected Biden to deliver a clear victory. However, the Democratic nominee failed to win key swing states that count votes quickly and will now need to wait on states to finish counting a huge number of postal ballots cast amid the coronavirus pandemic.
· Don’t expect a call in the presidential race anytime soon as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin process votes
Don’t hold your breath for a call in the presidential race.
Election results from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could take until later this week to complete official tallies, according to officials.
· Trump tries to claim victory even as ballots are being counted in several states
· Biden says he expects to win the presidency
· U.S. presidency still undecided; Biden opens leads in key Midwestern states
Democratic challenger Joe Biden opened up narrow leads in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday morning, according to Edison Research, as the two Midwestern battleground states that the Republican president won in 2016 continued to count mail-in ballots that surged amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Together with Nevada, another state where Biden held a small advantage with votes still left to be tallied, those states would deliver Biden the 270 votes needed in the state-by-state Electoral College to win the White House. But Trump still had a path to victory with those states officially undecided.
· Biden projected to win Michigan — he’s now 17 Electoral College votes short of White House victory
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is projected to win the state of Michigan, leaving him just 17 Electoral College votes short of being elected to the White House, NBC News reported Wednesday.
Biden, the former vice president, now is projected to win two states that were won by his opponent, incumbent President Donald Trump, in the 2016 election. The other state is Wisconsin.
Michigan has 16 Electoral College votes.
· Private payroll growth slows in October, well below expectations
Private job creation showed a sharp deceleration in October as the U.S. economy struggled against a resurgent coronavirus pandemic, according to a report Wednesday by ADP.
Companies added 365,000 positions for the month, well below the 600,000 estimate from a Dow Jones economist survey. That was the lowest reported gain from ADP since July.
· China’s Xi says country will speed up trade talks with EU, Japan and South Korea
In a major speech on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping talked up his country’s plans for playing a greater role in global trade, without mentioning ongoing tensions with the U.S.
“We will work for the early signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and speed up negotiations of the China-EU investment treaty, and the China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement,” Xi said in Mandarin, according to an official translation.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters, The Guardian, Worldometers
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