Gold and silver prices move lower heading into the EU open

London (Jan 22)  Leading into the EU open gold (-0.46%) and silver (-1.45%) are both trading lower. The general risk sentiment in the Asia-Pac area has been weak as the Nikkei 225 (-0.44%), ASX (-0.34%) and Shanghai Composite (-0.40%) all closed in the red. The US dollar had a good session and moved higher against all its major counterparts. GBP/USD was one of the worst pairs overnight dropping 0.43%.

As Joe Biden finds his feet at the White House it seems clear that he is not in favour of drilling for more oil. Overnight it was reported that the new President is going to suspend new oil, gas drilling permits on federal land. He is also due to speak today at 2.45 pm Washington time (1945GMT) about the response to the economic crisis.

In the UK, there are fresh reports that the government ministers are urging shutting the border to non-UK citizens. The nation is struggling to get to grips with the new variant of COVID-19 and this seems like the next logical step from the government.

There has been another massive blow for sports as it seems that Japan's government has concluded that the Olympic games cannot go ahead. This is a massive blow for the economy in Japan as they would have made revenue from the tourist industry.

There was some data overnight and inflation in New Zealand moved to 0.5% for Q4 vs 0.7% in the previous quarter. The drop could have been because the currency has been strengthening in recent times. Japanese nation CPI for December (Y/Y) fell further to -1.2% from -0.9%.

Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include UK retail sales, PMI numbers from the major nations, Canadian retail sales, weekly DoE inventory levels, the Baker Hughes rig count and comment from Joe Biden.

KitcoNews