Gold and silver are mixed leading into the EU open
London (Jan 14) Gold (-0.13%) and silver (0.14%) are trading slightly negatively leading into the EU open this morning. Risk sentiment overnight has been ok as the Nikkei 225 (0.85%) and the ASX (0.43%) pushed higher. The Shanghai Composite however struggled and moved 0.91% in the red. In the FX space, most of the major FX pairs are flat but AUD and NZD outperform.
In terms of news, Donald Trump becomes the first president in history to be impeached for a second time. Ten republican representatives joined the two hundred and twenty-two Democrats in the vote.
On the stimulus front, one of President-elect Joe Biden's aids has said the new stimulus plan could be valued in the region of $2 trillion. This is $700 million more than what the democrat senate leader Schumer called for earlier in 2020. It has been reported that Biden will outline his stimulus and vaccine plan at 19.15 US time (ET).
There was lots of talk from US central bankers but the main comments came from Brainard. She stated that the Fed's asset purchases are to remain appropriate for quite some time and the timing of the interest rate lift depends on a realized progress toward maximum employment.
The COVID-19 situation in the UK is getting worse as the nation recorded its highest amount of deaths in a single day. The Prime Minister said hospitals are very close to being overwhelmed but the vaccine roll-out is progressing well.
There is trouble in the Italian parliament as the government is at risk of collapse. A junior coalition partner, led by former premier Matteo Renzi, pulled out. This now leaves Conte to piece together a new coalition.
Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include the ECB policy statement, OPEC report, US initial jobless claims and comments from Fed's Powell, Bostic and BoJ's Kuroda.
Reuters
